Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of a group of antibiotics originally isolated from a strain of the soil microorganism Streptomyces mediterranei, used in the United States to treat tuberculosis and prevent meningococcal infections, and used in other countries to treat leprosy and other bacterial diseases.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a group of antibiotics, a subclass of the ansamycins, which are synthesized either naturally by the bacterium Amycolatopsis mediterranei or artificially.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of rifomycin : probably Italian rifo(rmare), to reform (ri-, again, from Latin re-; see re– + formare, to form, from Latin fōrmāre; see reform) + –mycin.]

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