preclinical

adjective

pre·​clin·​i·​cal (ˌ)prē-ˈkli-ni-kəl 

1

: of, relating to, or concerned with the period preceding clinical manifestations

2

: of, relating to, or being the period in medical or dental education preceding the clinical study of medicine or dentistry

3

: occurring prior to clinical testing

a preclinical animal study of a new therapy

Examples of preclinical in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Subsense, which has raised $27 million in funding, is currently doing preclinical work, experimenting with various elements of the technology and conducting some experiments on mice. — Alexei Oreskovic, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2026

Finding an answer still requires the painstaking work of formulation, preclinical testing, clinical research, and regulatory review. — Emma Clapp, USA Today, 2 Sep. 2026

More recently, researchers tested humanoid robots during live gallbladder surgeries in a preclinical study. — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 19 Aug. 2026

In early 2025, the hospital’s ethics committee approved the clinical trial, before the final results of one of the preclinical studies on monkeys was released, Science reported. — Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 31 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1876, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for preclinical

• nonclinical
• rabbinical
• subclinical
• binnacle
• clinical
• cynical
• pinnacle

Medical Definition

preclinical

adjective

pre·​clin·​i·​cal (ˈ)prē-ˈklin-i-kəl 

1

a

: of, relating to, concerned with, or being the period preceding clinical manifestations

the preclinical stage of diabetes mellitus

b

: occurring prior to a clinical trial

preclinical animal testing to assess a drug's safety

2

: of, relating to, or being the period in medical or dental education preceding the clinical study of medicine or dentistry

the preclinical years

specifically : of or relating to the early period of prescribed medical or dental study devoted to the basic sciences (as anatomy, physiology, and pathology)

preclinical studies

3

: of, relating to, or being a science basic to medicine

research in the preclinical sciences