Other forms: inhibitors
An inhibitor is a substance that slows a reaction down. A corrosion inhibitor, an enzyme inhibitor, add an inhibitor.
In chemistry it is the opposite of a catalyst, and in medicine a whole family of drugs is named this way — ACE inhibitors, proton pump inhibitors — each blocking one specific step. The name tells you what the drug does rather than what it treats, which is why the class names are so long and so useful. Note inhibit.
1nouninhibitorA substance that slows a reaction down.
“Adding an inhibitor slowed the reaction so the chemists could study each stage.”
inhibitor is a substance.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʰeh₁bʰ-
Latin
inhibitus
English
inhibit
English, today
inhibitor
Built from
From inhibit + -or. inhibit comes from Latin inhibitus, perfect passive participle of inhibeō (“to hold in, check, restrain”), from in (“in, at, on”), + habeō (“to have, hold, keep”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA