Blend of ketone +‎ amine. First use appears c. 1966.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt.ə.mɪn/, /ˈkiː.tə.miːn/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt.əˌmin/, /ˈki.təˌmin/

• Audio (General American):

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ketamine (countable and uncountable, plural ketamines)

1. (pharmacology) A synthetic compound used as a dissociative anesthetic and analgesic drug and also recreationally as a hallucinogen.

   Synonyms: Special K (slang), vitamin K (slang), horse tranquilizer (slang)

   • 1984, William Gibson, Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 8:

     He was riding high that night, with a brick of Wage's ketamine on its way to Yokohama and the money already in his pocket.

   • 2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The chatbot instructed him to give up sleeping pills and an anti-anxiety medication, and to increase his intake of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, which ChatGPT described as a “temporary pattern liberator.”

   • 2025 December 31, Raphael Boyd, “Cases of ketamine abuse are surging, say urologists”, in The Guardian, page 16:

     Urology departments across the UK could be close to breaking point after ketamine-related hospital admissions have "skyrocketed" in recent years, experts have warned. The class-B dissociative drug used for pain relief and sedation is increasingly used recreationally in the UK. […] a consultant urological surgeon in Sheffield, said admissions tied to ketamine abuse had "skyrocketed" in the past few years, and that not enough users understood the effect that consistently taking the drug would have on their bodies. "Ketamine is a unique drug because it seems like there are no side-effects, but it's more complicated than that," he said. "It slowly impacts the bladder and the liver, and then the urinary tract. It takes a couple of years to begin to notice these effects, but once you start noticing them they're pretty irreversible."

• K-hole
• esketamine
• S-ketamine
• R-ketamine
• RS-ketamine

• “ketamine”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ketamine”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• kanemite

• keta, ket

Borrowed from English ketamine.

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ketamine f (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. ketamine