What does "corticosteroid" mean?

Any of a group of steroid hormones, secreted by the adrenal cortex, that are involved in a large range of physiological systems.

What is a synonym for "corticosteroid"?

Common synonyms include: adrenal cortical steroid, corticoid.

Pronounced //ˈkʰoɹɾɪko.steːɹoid//.

//ˈkʰoɹɾɪko.steːɹoid// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of a group of steroid hormones, secreted by the adrenal cortex, that are involved in a large range of physiological systems.
2
a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal cortex or synthesized; administered as drugs they reduce swelling and decrease the body's immune response wordnet
3
Any of several synthetic hormones of related structure.
"Wúràọlá’s first patient was a man who had not noticed any significant improvement after a regimen of corticosteroids had been prescribed for his spondylosis."

"It's not an anabolic steroid, but a corticosteroid."

From cortico- + steroid.

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