hypodermic

1 of 2

adjective

hy·​po·​der·​mic ˌhī-pə-ˈdər-mik 

1

: adapted for use in or administered by injection beneath the skin

2

: of or relating to the parts beneath the skin

3

: resembling a hypodermic injection in effect : stimulating

hypodermically

ˌhī-pə-ˈdər-mi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

hypodermic

2 of 2

noun

1

: hypodermic injection

2

: hypodermic syringe

Synonyms

Noun

• needle
• syringe

Examples of hypodermic in a Sentence

Noun

he hardly felt it when the nurse stuck the hypodermic in his arm

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Melting snow mingled with broken hypodermic needles on the park's grass as a ranger and a mental health counselor walked together. —Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY, 5 Feb. 2023

Pop Warner football coach Domingos DaRosa often finds dirty hypodermic needles on Clifford Park, where his team practices. —Emily Sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Sep. 2022

Noun

What is more confronting is that the central character is a girl of 13 who has just been forcibly tattooed by a classmate with a dirty hypodermic. —Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline, 19 May 2025

The syringes of those needles are in turn labelled, so that medical workers can keep track of which medications are in which hypodermics. —New Atlas, 22 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

hypo- + -dermic (in endermic "acting through the skin," epidermic)

Note: Term apparently originated by the English surgeon Charles Hunter in "On the hypodermic treatment of diseases," The Retrospect of Medicine, vol. 39 (January-June, 1859), p. 50: "Medicinal substances may be introduced into the cellular tissue beneath the skin with the greatest facility by means of a minute syringe, and so introduced certain medicines will act with an extraordinary rapidity, and the most satisfactory result. To distinguish this plan of injecting beneath the skin from the epidermic and endermic, it would be as well perhaps to use similar phraseology, and call this the hypodermic method."

Noun

by shortening

First Known Use

Adjective

1863, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

circa 1889, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing hypodermic

• hypodermic injection
• hypodermic needle
• hypodermic syringe

Rhymes for hypodermic

• endothermic
• exothermic
• hypothermic
• thermic

Kids Definition

hypodermic

1 of 2 adjective

hy·​po·​der·​mic ˌhī-pə-ˈdər-mik 

: of, relating to, or injected into the parts beneath the skin

hypodermically

-mi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

hypodermic

2 of 2 noun

1

: hypodermic injection

2

: hypodermic syringe

Medical Definition

hypodermic

1 of 2 adjective

hy·​po·​der·​mic -ˈdər-mik 

1

: of or relating to the parts beneath the skin

2

: adapted for use in or administered by injection beneath the skin

hypodermically

-mi-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

hypodermic

2 of 2 noun

1

: hypodermic injection

2

: hypodermic syringe