nostra

N1O1S1T1R1A1

A form of nostrum — A medicine or remedy in conventional use which has not been proven to have any desirable medical effects.

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Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of nostrum

    Much less shall we enter into a detail of the many nostra and patent medicines that have been, and still are, trumpeted round as sure and never-failing…

    1928, Massachusetts Medical Society, New England Surgical Society, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, page 121
    3 more examples

    …beg our clerical friends to remember that quack medicines are of two kinds,… …with his poisonous nostra in the form of doctrines, upon those of whose…

    1847–1848: [AUTHOR UNKNOWN], Annalist: A Record of Practical Medicine in the City of New York, p193

    On the other hand, alchemists had arisen with their pertinacious search for the philosopher’s stone, which was to convert all metals into gold, and cure all diseases. In this search they gave their nostra extensive trial on sick and well.

    1917, Torald Hermann Sollmann, A Manual of pharmacology and its applications to therapeutics and toxicology, page 71

    …immunotherapy, Isselsism, thermotherapy, and all other nostra — are used faut de mieux, when the three bulwarks of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy have failed, or are prima facie useless.

    1955: King Edward Memorial Hospital (Bombay, India), Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, p71

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

ASTRONSartonSantorasnortStaronSontra
Cite this entry
APA

nostra. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nostra

MLA

“nostra.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nostra. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nostra,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nostra.

Source: nostra on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.