noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A lactam having a four-membered ring structure; a structural element of many antibiotics such as penicillin.

Etymology

From beta + lactam, where beta refers to the position of the carbon atom to which the nitrogen is attached.

Related phrases

beta-lactamasebeta-lactamic

Editorial Guides For "beta-lactam"

How to Write Clear Call-to-Action Copy

Create stronger CTA text for landing pages and product flows without hype language.

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