Pill Meaning
/pɪl/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
nounA small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication., Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than a capsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid).
Sentence Examples
I'd like to take the pill.
The vitamin pill contains abundant nutrition.
Love is a pill made from a great many people's sufferings.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor instructed me to swallow this small ____ with water to cure my headache.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor prescribed a small white ____ to be taken once a day with a glass of water.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken."
— 1864, Benjamin Ellis, The Medical Formulary:
"I'm tearing down your brooder house / 'Cause now I've got the pill"
— 1975, “The Pill”, in Back to the Country, performed by Loretta Lynn:
"Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed."
— 1986, Jurriaan Plesman, Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:
"You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her."
— 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IV:
"Instead, I saw a woman in her mid-fifties, who was a real pill; while all the others had managed a decent “So pleased,” or even a plain “Hello,” Ginger just inclined her head, as if she was doing a Queen Mary imitation."
— 2000, Susan Isaacs, Shining Through:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The doctor instructed me to swallow this small ____ with water to cure my headache.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The doctor prescribed a small white ____ to be taken once a day with a glass of water.