Skip to content

cuentagotas

dropper

noun kwehn-tah-GOH-tahs Rare

Also means

eyedropper

Usage Note

Cuentagotas is a compound of cuenta ('counts') + gotas ('drops') and refers to a dropper or pipette. Crucially, it is invariable in the plural — los cuentagotas — as with many Spanish compound nouns formed with a third-person verb. The phrase a cuentagotas is a very common idiom meaning 'in dribs and drabs' or 'drop by drop', used when information or money is released very sparingly.

Examples

"El médico aplicó el medicamento con el cuentagotas."

Natural Translation

The doctor applied the medicine with the dropper.

Free starter pack

Building your Spanish vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common Spanish words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore Spanish by topic