adj, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A strong, pressurized, heated vessel, as for laboratory experiments, sterilization, cooking or mineral processing.
2. 2
   a device for heating substances above their boiling point; used to manufacture chemicals or to sterilize surgical instruments wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To sterilize laboratory equipment in an autoclave. transitive
2. 2
   subject to the action of an autoclave wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Synonym of autokey. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms

autokeyboilbroomchlorinatecleaningdecontaminate

Etymology

Borrowed from French autoclave, formed with prefix auto- + Latin clavis (“key”).

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