Cytotoxic

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any cytotoxic substance; a cytotoxin.
"Current chemotherapies for cancer are mostly cytotoxics with serious side effects and high incidence of drug resistance."

Adjective

1
Of, relating to, or being a cytotoxin.
2
Of or relating to cytotoxicity.
"A recent study focused on the enzymatic and cytotoxic functions of jellyfish metalloproteases and identified diverse proteolytic effects including gelatinolytic, caseinolytic, and fibrinolytic activities."

Adjective

1
of or relating to substances that are toxic to cells wordnet

Antonyms

Example

"The spikes on a stonefish's fins contain glands that inject neurotoxic and cytotoxic venom."

Etymology

From cyto- + toxic.

Related phrases

cytotoxic T cell cytotoxic reaction

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