A suppository is a small piece of solid medicine, usually shaped like a little bullet or cone, that is put into the rectum (or sometimes the vagina) rather than swallowed. It melts at body temperature and the drug passes into the blood from there. Doctors use this form when a patient cannot keep anything down — a vomiting child, someone after surgery — or when the medicine needs to work right where it is placed, as with piles or constipation. It is an ordinary clinical word, not a rude one; a pharmacist will say it to you across the counter without lowering their voice. Still, it names something private, so outside a medical context English speakers tend to mention it briefly and move on. The plural is *suppositories*, and the stress falls on the second syllable: sup-PO-si-tor-y.

栓劑、塞劑（台灣藥局常直接說「塞劑」；退燒的兒童用藥常叫「退燒塞劑」）