Penicillinase

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A specific type of beta-lactamase showing specificity for penicillins. countable, uncountable

    "To date, there have been only 23 confirmed cases of penicillinase-producing gonococcus (totally penicillin-resistant gonorrhea) reported in the United States."

  2. 2
    enzyme produced by certain bacteria that inactivates penicillin and results in resistance to that antibiotic wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
beta lactamasebeta-lactamase

Example

More examples

"To date, there have been only 23 confirmed cases of penicillinase-producing gonococcus (totally penicillin-resistant gonorrhea) reported in the United States."

Etymology

From penicillin + -ase.

Related phrases

beta lactamase

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