ketamine

Blend of ketone +‎ amine. First use appears c. 1966.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt.ə.mɪn/, /ˈkiː.tə.miːn/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt.əˌmin/, /ˈki.təˌmin/

• Audio (General American):

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ketamine (countable and uncountable, plural ketamines)

1. (pharmacology) A synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally as a hallucinogen.

   Synonyms: (slang) Special K, (slang) vitamin K

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 8:

     He was riding high that night, with a brick of Wage's ketamine on its way to Yokohama and the money already in his pocket.

   • 2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The chatbot instructed him to give up sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication, and to increase his intake of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, which ChatGPT described as a “temporary pattern liberator.”

• K-hole
• esketamine
• S-ketamine
• R-ketamine
• RS-ketamine

• “ketamine”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ketamine”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• kanemite

• keta, ket

Borrowed from English ketamine.

• Audio:

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ketamine f (uncountable)

1. ketamine