noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The tolerance to a usually toxic substance stimulated by former exposure to a structurally similar substance. countable, uncountable

   "Cross-resistance between antibiotics of the same class can occur frequently."

2. 2
   The tolerance to the pathogenic effects of a microorganism stimulated by former exposure to a similar infectious agent. countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"Cross-resistance between antibiotics of the same class can occur frequently."

Etymology

From cross- + resistance.

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