What does "acetaminophen" mean?

A white crystalline compound used in medicine as an anodyne to relieve pain and reduce fever.

What is a synonym for "acetaminophen"?

Common synonyms include: tylenol, aminophen, anacin iii, apap, apap, aspirin.

Pronounced //əˌsitəˈmɪnəfən//.

//əˌsitəˈmɪnəfən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A white crystalline compound used in medicine as an anodyne to relieve pain and reduce fever. Canada, US
"You need to take acetaminophen / Or just a little aspirin / acetylsalicylic for the pain"
2
an analgesic for mild pain but not for inflammation; also used as an antipyretic; (Datril, Tylenol, Panadol, Phenaphen, Tempra, and Anacin III are trademarks of brands of acetaminophen tablets) wordnet

"Tom took acetaminophen and cold medicine."

Shortening of the chemical name para-acetylaminophenol. By surface analysis, acet- + amino- + -phen.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.