Word.ws English Dictionary

surgical spirit

surgical spirit noun: ethanol with small quantities of additives (typically 2% castor oil and 0.5% methyl salicylate), used primarily as a topical antiseptic.

Noun

surgical spirit (usually uncountable, plural surgical spirits)

  1. (UK, usually) Ethanol with small quantities of additives (typically 2% castor oil and 0.5% methyl salicylate), used primarily as a topical antiseptic.
    Synonyms:
    rubbing alcohol

Synonyms of surgical spirit

Forms of surgical spirit

pluralsurgical spirits

Questions about surgical spirit

What does surgical spirit mean?
Surgical spirit means ethanol with small quantities of additives (typically 2% castor oil and 0.5% methyl salicylate), used primarily as a topical antiseptic.
What part of speech is surgical spirit?
Surgical spirit is a noun.
What is the plural of surgical spirit?
The plural of surgical spirit is surgical spirits.

Words near surgical spirit in the dictionary

  1. surgical gowns
  2. surgical mask
  3. surgical masks
  4. surgical procedure
  5. surgical procedures
  6. surgical spirit
  7. surgical spirits
  8. surgical stocking
  9. surgical stockings
  10. surgical strike
  11. surgical strikes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surgical spirit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “surgical spirit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/surgical_spirit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.