treatment

American  

[treet-muhnt] / ˈtrit mənt /

noun

• treatments
  plural

1. an act or manner of treating.

   Synonyms:

   approach, conduct, management, handling

2. action or behavior toward a person, animal, etc.

3. management in the application of medicines, surgery, etc.

4. literary or artistic handling, especially with reference to style.

5. subjection to some agent or action.

6. Movies, Television. a preliminary outline of a film or teleplay laying out the key scenes, characters, and locales.

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treatment British  

/ ˈtriːtmənt /

noun

1. the application of medicines, surgery, psychotherapy, etc, to a patient or to a disease or symptom

2. the manner of handling or dealing with a person or thing, as in a literary or artistic work

3. the act, practice, or manner of treating

4. films an expansion of a script into sequence form, indicating camera angles, dialogue, etc

5. slang the usual manner of dealing with a particular type of person (esp in the phrase give someone the ( full ) treatment )

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treatment Idioms  

1. see red carpet (treatment).

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nontreatment
  noun
• overtreatment
  noun
• self-treatment
  noun
• posttreatment
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• treatments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of treatment

First recorded in 1550–60; treat + -ment

Explanation

Treatment has to do with how someone or something is managed or handled. Hopefully you get the royal treatment when you choose the deluxe pedicure treatment! You know how some people treat you with respect but others don't treat you so nicely? You can refer to how people act toward you as treatment. If a restaurant is known for rude treatment of customers, people will stop going there. Doctors also use the word treatment when they discuss a particular medical course of action — such as chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer. The root word is the Latin tractare, which originally meant "drag about," but came to mean "manage, handle, or deal with."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

treatment treatments

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied a request for a Los Angeles influencer charged with stealing luxury items from wealthy older men she met on dating apps to be diverted into mental health treatment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

A week after, he was granted a leave of absence to prioritise his mental health and received professional support and treatment to "take care of himself emotionally".

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

Researchers and clinicians are increasingly discussing trauma-informed approaches to fertility treatment, pregnancy, and birth.

From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026

Regeneron’s gene therapy to cure a rare form of deafness treats so few children that the company decided to make the treatment free.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

This medicine, “the miracle of Carville,” was a breakthrough in the treatment of Hansen’s disease.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

And he said a key advantage was that it was likely to be cheaper than other weight-loss treatments, which have tended to be tightly restricted by the NHS.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

I am the closest family member, so I’ve been taking my brother to treatments, helping manage his care and maintaining his property.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026

As a result, treatments targeting GlyT1 often provided limited benefits and caused unwanted side effects.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

It's also a priority for his customers, who are keen to protect families and pets from conventional treatments such as the "forever chemical" bifenthrin, classified as a possible human carcinogen.

From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026

Afterward, Nancy and Jerry stayed on in Wichita for a few days to help Nancy’s father get to the hospital for his cancer treatments.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Related Words

• analysis
• cure
• hospitalization
• medication
• medicine
• operation
• prescription
• regimen
• remedy
• surgery
• therapy