medication
Americannoun
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the use or application of medicine.
-
a medicinal substance; medicament.
noun
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treatment with drugs or remedies
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a drug or remedy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of medication
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin medicātiōn- (stem of medicātiō ). See medicate, -ion
Explanation
If your doctor prescribes something for you to take, it's medication. Medication is another way to say "medicine" or "drug." Your poison ivy rash might be so bad that you need to take medication to stop the itching. People need medication for all sorts of illnesses and disorders throughout their lives, from headache medication to medication for cancer treatment. In the fifteenth century, the word meant "medical treatment of a disease or wound," from the Latin medicationem, "healing or cure," with its root in medicus, which means both "healing" and "physician."
Vocabulary lists containing medication
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Pharmacy Words
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The Boy in the Black Suit
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Around a decade later, when Danovich went to a clinic for another IUD—a small, T-shaped birth control device that’s inserted past the cervix into the uterus—she asked the doctor for pain medication.
From Slate • Jun. 7, 2026
During an investor call on Saturday, a Pfizer executive noted that patients and doctors now view these drugs as tools that address a chronic disease, not as a one-and-done medication.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 6, 2026
Researchers reviewed up to three years of health records after participants began taking either a GLP-1 receptor agonist, most commonly semaglutide, liraglutide, or dulaglutide, or an SGLT2 inhibitor, another type of diabetes medication.
From Science Daily • Jun. 3, 2026
The researchers hope the discovery will help identify medication that can prevent the loss of synapses - the vital connections that allow messages to flow between brain cells and support healthy brain function.
From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026
Deposits were normally a few hundred dollars, and who knew how much medication would cost.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
