antivenom

From anti- +‎ venom, q.v. Doublet of antivenin and antivenene.

antivenom (countable and uncountable, plural antivenoms)

1. (medicine) A medicine that counteracts venom, an antidote to biological poisons from venomous animals such as snakes and spiders.

   broad-spectrum antivenom

   • 2008, “Poisonings”, in Margie Peden, Kayode Oyegbite, Joan Ozanne-Smith, Adnan A Hyder, Christine Branche, AKM Fazlur Rahman, Frederick Rivara, Kidist Bartolomeos, editors, World Report on Child Injury Prevention, WHO Press, →ISBN, page 129:

     Most deaths and serious consequences from snakebites are entirely preventable by existing means, including making antivenom much more widely available.

   • 2022, Derek Muller, "How Horses Save Humans from Snake Bites", Veritasium, 00:03:12 ff.:

     So how much venom do you actually need to make antivenom?
     About 15.
     15 snakes to make one vial of antivenom?
     Yep.

   • 2025 May 2, Ari Daniel, “He let snakes bite him some 200 times to create a better snakebite antivenom”, in NPR:

     For Tim Friede, who's now the director of herpetology at Centivax, it's about helping the people impacted by venomous snakebites worldwide. When he heard that his antibodies had helped create this new antivenom cocktail, he says he was happy. […] David Williams, a scientist who evaluates antivenoms for WHO, says the biggest risk to people who are bitten by these snakes is paralysis, "which can prevent them from being able to control their airway and breathing and they can potentially suffocate and die as a result of that."

• antivenin, antivenene (UK & Australia)

• antitoxin, antidote, serum, antiserum

• See mithridate and theriac (supposed universal antidotes)
• antivenin (certain snakebites)