Standard Lemma guide

teratogen

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.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any agent or substance which can cause malformation of an embryo or birth defects.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: medicine, sciences, teratology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any agent that interferes with normal embryonic development: alcohol or thalidomide or X-rays or rubella are examples

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: agent

Narrower terms: thalidomide

History

Etymology

From terato- + -gen.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: teratogen — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • Chinese Mandarin: 致畸物 — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • Finnish: teratogeeni — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • French: tératogène — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • Indonesian: teratogen — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • Japanese: 催奇形性物質 (saikikeiseibusshitsu) — agent or substance which can cause malformation
  • Spanish: teratógeno — agent or substance which can cause malformation