supralethaladj.
/ˌsuːprəˈliːθl/, /ˌsjuːprəˈliːθl/, U.S. /ˌsuprəˈliθ(ə)l/ Medicine and Biology.
Of a dose of drug, radiation, etc.: exceeding what is normally considered to be lethal.
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sublethal1887
supralethal1907
1907 Ann. Rep. Med. Officer Local Govt. Board 1905–6 428 25 milligrams of dry material was sufficient to protect the monkey against a supra-lethal dose of virulent B. pestis.
1957 Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 137 426 A total continuous dose of 24 kr, referred to as a supralethal dose, was given to interphase cells.
1979 Nature 11 Oct. 490/2 Supralethal doses of chemoradiotherapy..are being used to treat patients with acute leukaemia.
2007 L. G. Cockerham et al. in A. W. Hayes Princ. & Methods Toxicol. (ed. 5) xviii. 936/1 Exposure to supralethal doses of radiation has been shown to induce alterations in cardiovascular function in many species.
Derivatives
ˌsupraˈlethally adv.
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1955 Jrnl. Exper. Zool. 130 190 (heading) Survival and cell division in supralethally x-irradiated giant amoebae following injection of nonirradiated protoplasm.
2008 T. E. Starzl in J. A. Norton et al. Surgery (ed. 2) lxxix. 1684/2 Good renal allograft function in a supralethally irradiated recipient that also was given donor bone marrow.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1907