Word of the Day

: January 22, 2008

adjuvant

adjective AJ-uh-vunt

What It Means

1 : serving to aid or contribute : auxiliary

2 : assisting in the prevention, amelioration, or cure of disease

adjuvant in Context

Dr. Browne and his research team are running a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery.

Did You Know?

Things that are adjuvant rarely get top billing -- they're the supporting players, not the stars. But that doesn't mean they're not important. An adjuvant medicine, for example, can have a powerful healing effect when teamed up with another medicine or curative treatment. "Adjuvant" descends from the Latin verb "adjuvare" ("to aid"), which also gave us our nouns "coadjutor" ("assistant") and "aid." These days, "adjuvant" tends to turn up most often in medical contexts, but it can also be used in the general sense of "serving to aid." Likewise, the noun "adjuvant" can mean "a drug or method that enhances the effectiveness of medical treatment" or simply "one that helps or facilitates."