Pill
In pharmacy, a medicinal substance in a small round or oval mass meant to be swallowed. Pills often contain a filler and a plastic substance such as lactose that permits the pill to be rolled by hand or machine into the desired form. The pill may then be coated with a varnishlike substance.
The word pill is a shortened version of the French pilule, a pill. Originally from the Latin pila, a ball.
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A device for tablet splitting.
- Pill, the
Commonly called “the pill,” combined oral contraceptives are the most commonly used form of reversible birth control in the United States. This form of birth control suppresses ovulation (the monthly release of an egg from the ovaries) by the combined actions of the hormones estrogen and progestin. If a woman remembers to take the pill […]
- Piloerection
Erection of the hair of the skin due to contraction of the tiny arrectores pilorum muscles that elevate the hair follicles above the rest of the skin and move the hair vertically, so the hair seems to ‘stand on end.’
- Pilonidal
Refers to an embedded (ingrown) hair or tuft of hair. Literally, a nest of hair. From the Latin pilus (meaning hair) and nidus (meaning nest).
- Pilonidal cyst
An abscess that occurs in the cleft between the buttocks at the base of the tailbone (coccyx). Pilonidal cysts are common in adolescence, often after long trips that involve sitting.