Antiretroviral

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An agent that combats retroviruses.

    "Inequality, research shows, [is why] we still see Aids-related deaths in an era when we have all the antiretrovirals, HIV prevention pills, vaginal rings, injections and harm-reduction plans needed to end the pandemic."

Adjective
  1. 1
    That combats infection by retroviruses.

    "Begun in 2003 and covering some 50 countries, Pepfar has saved the lives of an estimated 13m people living with HIV-Aids, mostly in Africa, by providing them with antiretroviral drugs."

Example

More examples

"But is that goal truly attainable with millions more expected to need antiretroviral drugs in coming years?"

Etymology

From anti- + retroviral.

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