adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Of medicine and other treatments, legal for sale or distribution without the requirement of a prescription. not-comparable

   "over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter medicine"

2. 2
   Involving direct interaction between two parties without an intermediary, and denoting any market where items such as stocks or currency are bought and sold by direct arrangement between counterparties, or through a private broker, rather than on a public stock exchange or other exchange. not-comparable

   "over-the-counter trade, over-the-counter market"

Adjective

1. 1
   (of securities) not traded on a stock exchange wordnet
2. 2
   purchasable without a doctor's prescription wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

otcnonprescriptionotc

Example

More examples

"This is one of the best over-the-counter pain killers you can buy."

Etymology

An attributive form of over the counter.

Related phrases

non-over-the-counter

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