How to spell antiseptic

hear itan·ti·sep·tic/,æntɪ'sɛptɪk/nounPrefixes and work

What it means: A substance that kills germs without harming tissues.

In a sentence: Mom used an antiseptic to clean my cut.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as antisceptic or antiseptik.

Same family: septic, antisepsis, aseptic, disinfectant, sterile. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Antiseptic” comes from the Greek prefix “anti-” meaning “against” and “sēptikos,” related to rotting or infection. It literally means “against infection” and entered medical English in the 19th century during the rise of germ theory and modern surgery.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

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