Meanings
comparative more adjuvant · superlative most adjuvant
- formalProviding assistance or help; assistive, facilitative, helpful.First known use 16th c.
Synonyms: assisting, auxiliary, complementary, contributory, helping, supporting
- medicineOf a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; specifically (oncology), of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour.First known use 19th c.
Adjuvant chemotherapy, [Paul] Carbone conjectured, could be the surgeon's little helper. It would eradicate microscopic deposits of cancer left behind after surgery, thus extirpating any remnant reservoirs of malignancy in the body in early breast cancer— […]
2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, “Halsted’s Ashes”, in The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 219
plural adjuvants
- Someone or (more commonly) something that assists, facilitates, or helps; an aid, an assistant, a helper.
- formalimmunologyA substance enhancing the immune response to an antigen.First known use 16th c.
The well-known tropic action of immune serum as an adjuvant to phagocytosis suggested early in our studies that we might here be dealing with a similar phenomenon.
1914 November, Frederick P. Gay, Edith J[ane] Claypole, “Specific Hyperleukocytosis: Studies in Typhoid Immunization”, in Archives of Internal Medicine, volume XIV, number 5, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 662–670 - formalmedicineA form of therapy or treatment which is additional or supplementary to another, or which enhances the effectiveness of another.First known use 16th c.
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveProviding assistance or help; assistive, facilitative, helpful.
nounAn additive (often a separate product) that enhances the efficacy of a pesticide, but has little or no pesticidal effect itself.
nounA form of therapy or treatment which is additional or supplementary to another, or which enhances the effectiveness of another.
nounAn additive which aids or modifies the action of the principal ingredient of a drug.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivefurnishing added support
adjectiveenhancing the action of a medical treatment
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Frenchadjuvant
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁ewH-“to assist, help; to save”
- Latinadiuvant-
- Englishadjuvant
Learned borrowing from Latin adiuvant-, adjuvant- + English -ant (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘exhibiting a condition or process’; and forming agent nouns). Adiuvant-, adjuvant- are oblique stems of adiuvāns, adjuvāns (“assisting, helping”), the present active participle of adiuvō (“to assist, help; to be useful; etc.”), from ad- (“prefix meaning ‘to; toward’”) + iuvō (“to aid, help; to save”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ewH- (“to assist, help; to save”)). Adjective sense 3 (“of a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary”) and noun sense 1.4 (“additive which aids or modifies the action of the principal ingredient of a drug”) are possibly derived from French adjuvant (adjective, noun).
More words from Latin, Proto-Indo-European, French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech adjuvans, adjuvans
- adjuvanssubstance enhancing the immune response to an antigen
- adjuvansadditive which aids or modifies the action of the principal ingredient of a drug
Finnish adjuvanttinen, adjuvanttinen
- adjuvanttinenenhancing the immune response to an antigen; containing a substance having such an effect
- adjuvanttinenof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
- auttavainenproviding assistance or help — see also helpful
- avustavaproviding assistance or help — see also helpful
- tuki-providing assistance or help — see also helpful
- liitännäisaineadditive that enhances the efficacy of a pesticide, but has little or no pesticidal effect itself
- adjuvanttisubstance enhancing the immune response to an antigen
- adjuvanttiform of therapy or treatment which is additional or supplementary to another, or which enhances the effectiveness of another
- adjuvanttiadditive which aids or modifies the action of the principal ingredient of a drug
- adjutanttisomeone or something that assists, facilitates, or helps
- apumiessomeone or something that assists, facilitates, or helps
- apurisomeone or something that assists, facilitates, or helps
- assistenttisomeone or something that assists, facilitates, or helps
- avustajasomeone or something that assists, facilitates, or helps
French adjuvant
- adjuvantof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
German hilfreich, unterstützend
- hilfreichproviding assistance or help — see also helpful
- unterstützendproviding assistance or help — see also helpful
Italian adiuvante, coadiuvante
- adiuvanteof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
- coadiuvanteof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
Polish adiuwant
- adiuwantadditive that enhances the efficacy of a pesticide, but has little or no pesticidal effect itself
Portuguese adjuvante
- adjuvanteof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
Spanish adyuvante, adyuvante
- adyuvanteof a form of therapy or treatment: additional, supplementary; of a cancer treatment: given after removal of a primary tumour
- adyuvanteproviding assistance or help — see also helpful
Swedish adjuvant
- adjuvantadditive that enhances the efficacy of a pesticide, but has little or no pesticidal effect itself
Welsh adgynorthwyydd, adgynorthwyydd
- adgynorthwyyddsubstance enhancing the immune response to an antigen
- adgynorthwyyddadditive which aids or modifies the action of the principal ingredient of a drug
Cite this entry
adjuvant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adjuvant
“adjuvant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adjuvant. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adjuvant,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adjuvant.
Source: adjuvant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.