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ibuprofen

noun

Simple meaning

A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic medicine used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an antipyretic.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

eyebyooprohfuhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

aɪbjupˈɹoʊfən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. organic chemistrypharmacology

    A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic medicine (trade names Advil and Motrin and Nuprin) used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an antipyretic

    “Daily use of ibuprofen can irritate the stomach.”

  2. organic chemistrypharmacology

    A synthetic compound used widely as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic medicine (trade names Advil and Motrin and Nuprin) used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an antipyretic

Used this way, ibuprofen is a specialist word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.

Heard in a sentence
“Daily use of ibuprofen can irritate the stomach.”
Emotional tone
Slightly negative
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Clinical and detached

Where it naturally appears

  • Medicine/healthcare
  • Science
  • Technical/specialist writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Nearby words

  • motrin , rarer, so it draws attention
  • advil , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ibuprofen

  • “Daily use of ibuprofen can irritate the stomach.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

see ibuprofenlike ibuprofentake ibuprofentaking ibuprofensome ibuprofeninclude ibuprofenincluding ibuprofenibuprofen indomethacin

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Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic medicine (trade names Advil and Motrin and Nuprin) used to relieve the pain of arthritis and as an antipyretic

motrinRareadvilRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.