antisepsis
/ˌæn.tɪˈsɛp.sɪs/noun
antisepsis is a noun meaning “The science and practice of countering microbial infection, as with the use of antiseptics, and the use of aseptic technique” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-N-T-I-S-E-P-S-I-S and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 41 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of antisepsis is antisepses.
What does antisepsis mean?
noun
- 1
The science and practice of countering microbial infection, as with the use of antiseptics, and the use of aseptic technique.
- 2
archaicAny antiseptic agent.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce antisepsis?
- UK /ˌæn.tiˈsɛp.sɪs/
- US /ˌæn.tɪˈsɛp.sɪs/
Antisepsis has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-antisepsis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of antisepsis
- antisepses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is antisepsis?
Antisepsis appears about once in every 41 million words in written English, the 196,618th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Antisepsis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense science of countering microbial infection:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | antisepsie |
| German | Antisepsis |
| Portuguese | antissepsia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does antisepsis come from?
From anti- + sepsis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).