Standard Lemma guide

ephedrine

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɛf.ə.dɹiːn/
  • General-American: /ɪˈfɛ.dɹɪn/
  • General-American: /ˈɛf.ə.dɹɪn/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: IH0 F EH1 D R IH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A crystalline alkaloid drug C10H15NO obtained from a Chinese ephedra (Ephedra sinica) or synthesized that has the physiological action of epinephrine. It causes constriction of the blood vessels and widening of the bronchial passages and is used in the form of its hydrochloride or sulfate to relieve asthma and hay fever.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biochemistry, biology, chemistry, medicine, microbiology, natural-sciences, pharmacology, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

white odorless powdered or crystalline alkaloid from plants of the genus Ephedra (especially Ephedra sinica) or made synthetically; used as a bronchodilator to treat bronchitis and asthma

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: bronchodilator, alkaloid

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English ephedra Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos Proto-Italic *-īnos Latin -īnusder. Old French -inbor. Middle English -in English -ine English ephedrine From ephedra + -ine.

Across languages

Translations

22 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: ефедрин (efedrin) — alkaloid drug
  • Catalan: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麻黃素 /麻黄素 (máhuángsù) — alkaloid drug
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麻黃鹼 /麻黄碱 (máhuángjiǎn) — alkaloid drug
  • Esperanto: efedrino — alkaloid drug
  • Finnish: efedriini — alkaloid drug
  • French: éphédrine — alkaloid drug
  • Galician: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • German: Ephedrin — alkaloid drug
  • Greek: εφεδρίνη (efedríni) — alkaloid drug
  • Hungarian: efedrin — alkaloid drug
  • Ido: efedrino — alkaloid drug
  • Indonesian: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • Italian: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • Japanese: エフェドリン (efedorin) — alkaloid drug
  • Polish: efedryna — alkaloid drug
  • Portuguese: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • Romanian: efedrină — alkaloid drug
  • Russian: эфедри́н (efedrín) — alkaloid drug
  • Spanish: efedrina — alkaloid drug
  • Swedish: efedrin — alkaloid drug
  • Turkish: efedrin — alkaloid drug