noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of a group of chemicals used as preservatives in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, wherein the hydrogen of a parahydroxybenzene molecule is replaced by an alkyl group

   "I got breast cancer this year, and now avoid products containing parabens."

Example

More examples

"I got breast cancer this year, and now avoid products containing parabens."

Etymology

From para- hydroxybenzoate.

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