cephalosporin

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] New Latin (now ), a genus of fungi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛfələʊˈspɔəɹɪn/

Noun

cephalosporin (plural cephalosporins)

1. Any of a class of natural and synthetic antibiotics developed from fungi, having a cepham structure.
   • 2001, Leslie Iversen, Drugs: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2001, p. 63)

     Another important group of antibiotics, the cephalosporins, a class that includes more than twenty-five different drugs, are chemically distinct from the penicillins but act in the same way as cell wall inhibitors, as do vancomycin and bacitracin.

See also

• cephamycin