erythromycin
/ɪˌɹɪθ.ɹəˈmaɪ.sn̩/noun
erythromycin is a noun meaning “An antibiotic similar to penicillin, used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-R-Y-T-H-R-O-M-Y-C-I-N and has 5 syllables, and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of erythromycin is erythromycins.
What does erythromycin mean?
noun
- 1
An antibiotic similar to penicillin, used for the treatment of a number of bacterial infections.
- 2
A broad-spectrum macrolide antibiotic C₃₇H₆₇NO₁₃ produced by an actinomycete Saccharopolyspora erythraea (formerly Streptomyces erythreus) and similar in its effects to penicillin, administered orally or topically in the treatment of infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce erythromycin?
- UK /ɪˌɹɪθ.ɹə(ʊ)ˈmʌɪ.sɪn/
- US /ɪˌɹɪθ.ɹəˈmaɪ.sn̩/
Erythromycin has 5 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-erythromycin.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of erythromycin
- erythromycins plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is erythromycin?
Erythromycin appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 71,529th 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).
Erythromycin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Translations:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | érythromycine |
| German | Erythromycin |
| Portuguese | eritromicina |
| Spanish | eritromicina |
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 erythromycin come from?
From (Streptomyces) erythr(eus) + -o- + -mycin (“antibiotic from a Streptomyces strain”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).