What does "ribavirin" mean?

A synthetic analog of guanosine with chemical formula C₈H₁₂N₄O₅ that inhibits viral nucleic acid synthesis and is used as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug especially in the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus infection and chronic hepatitis C.

What is a synonym for "ribavirin"?

Common synonyms include: tribavirin, virazole.

How do you pronounce "ribavirin"?

Pronounced //ˌɹaɪ.bəˈvaɪ.ɹɪn//.

Ribavirin

//ˌɹaɪ.bəˈvaɪ.ɹɪn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A synthetic analog of guanosine with chemical formula C₈H₁₂N₄O₅ that inhibits viral nucleic acid synthesis and is used as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug especially in the treatment of respiratory syncytial virus infection and chronic hepatitis C. countable, uncountable
"Due to the paucity of approved treatments, it should come as no surprise that thousands of PWAs/PWARCs have found it necessary to try some of the more widely available alternative treatments. These include DNCB (a compound applied topically that has been used for Kaposi's sarcoma), ribavirin (an anti-viral treatment) and isoprinosene (an immune enhancer)."
2
an inhaled antiviral agent (trade name Virazole) that may be used to treat serious virus infections wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

tribavirin virazole

Example

More examples

"An anti-viral drug called Ribavirin was given to stop the virus from replicating. Steroids were also given to suppress the hyperactive immune response. According to initial reports, this combination helped roughly 80 percent of patients."

Etymology

From rib(oside) + -a- + -vir- (“antiviral”) + -in.

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