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ESL forum > Ask for help > pills and tablets    

pills and tablets



marwan380
Yemen

pills and tablets
 
dear teachers: can you tell me the difference between pills and tablets. thank you

23 Aug 2013      





thais_valente
Brazil

Hi, there =)

Strictly speaking, a 
pill is an archaic way of giving medication by mouth - being a hand-rolled spheroid. Made using a pill-rolling board to produce a cylinder of the prepared medication which was cut into slices, each of which was then rolled into a pill. 

tablet is a more modern way of preparing the equivalent, stamped out by a machine. Tablets may be plain or film-coated.

lozenge is intended to be sucked and traditionally was diamond-shaped (hence its name).

capsule is usually a container in two pieces, of gelatine or more commonly a synthetic material, which contains a drug as a powder, granules or pellets. Alternatively a one-piece container containing a liquid preparation. Except in the case of liquid content, it is intended to delay the release of a drug so that, for example, it is not absorbed in the mouth, or is absorbed in the small bowel rather than in the stomach.


In BE, the word pill is very widely used to mean tablet. 


Hope it helped ;)




23 Aug 2013     



yanogator
United States

In US English, "pill" often refers to any solid oral medication - tablet or capsule. It more often is used to mean the same as tablet.
 
Bruce

23 Aug 2013     



Sylvia Cathy
Uruguay

A pill is any solid dosage form taken by mouth. it could be tablet, capsule, gelcap and caplet etc. A tablet is a dosage form made from compressing powder.

23 Aug 2013     



libertybelle
United States

In daily usage. they are the same thing.

23 Aug 2013     



GrammerTeacher
United States

pills are like medicine, and tablets are stuff like ipads.  
for example, you would put a pill in your mouth if you were feeling sick, but you would use an ipad if your bored and you want to browse the web or play a game.
i hope this helped :)Smile

23 Aug 2013     



cunliffe
United Kingdom

At GrammerTeacher - ha ha, brilliant! LOL I like it a lot. 

23 Aug 2013     



edrodmedina
United States

Then there �s ... That guy is a real pill.

23 Aug 2013     



monder78
Poland

I �ve always thought that tablets are larger than pills and we use them for more serious diseases. You are often likely to come across pills with another word ,eg contraceptive pills. Pills are for minor ailments or are used to prevent some illness.

23 Aug 2013