noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A device used to sterilize, killing pathogens by means such as heat, UV light, chemicals, etc.

   "The hospital was in trouble when the sterilizer broke; they almost had to shut down the operating room."

2. 2
   a device for heating substances above their boiling point; used to manufacture chemicals or to sterilize surgical instruments wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

autoclaveautoclavesteriliser

Example

More examples

"The hospital was in trouble when the sterilizer broke; they almost had to shut down the operating room."

Etymology

From sterilize + -er.

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