prodrug
/ˈpɹoʊ.dɹʌɡ/noun, adjective
prodrug is a noun meaning “A drug that is administered in an inactive form that is metabolised in the body into a biologically active compound” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-R-O-D-R-U-G and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of prodrug is prodrugs.
What does prodrug mean?
noun
- 1
A drug that is administered in an inactive form that is metabolised in the body into a biologically active compound.
adjective
- 1
In favour of recreational drugs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce prodrug?
- UK /ˈpɹəʊ.dɹʌɡ/
- US /ˈpɹoʊ.dɹʌɡ/
As an adjective (“In favour of recreational drugs”): /pɹəʊˈdɹʌɡ/, /pɹoʊˈdɹʌɡ/.
Prodrug has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of prodrug
- prodrugs plural
- more prodrug comparative
- most prodrug superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is prodrug?
Prodrug appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th 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).
Where does prodrug come from?
From pro- (“substitute for”) + drug.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).