clinical
Americanadjective
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pertaining to a clinic.
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concerned with or based on actual observation and treatment of disease in patients rather than experimentation or theory.
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extremely objective and realistic; dispassionately analytic; unemotionally critical.
She regarded him with clinical detachment.
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pertaining to or used in a sickroom.
a clinical bandage.
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Ecclesiastical.
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(of a sacrament) administered on a deathbed or sickbed.
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(of a convert or conversion) made on a deathbed or sickbed.
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adjective
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of or relating to a clinic
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of or relating to the bedside of a patient, the course of his disease, or the observation and treatment of patients directly
a clinical lecture
clinical medicine
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scientifically detached; strictly objective
a clinical attitude to life
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plain, simple, and usually unattractive
clinical furniture
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of clinical
Explanation
Something that's clinical is based on or connected to the study of patients. Clinical medications have actually been used by real people, not just studied theoretically. When you hear about clinical drug trials, you'll know there are patients taking them and being observed — this type of test can be called clinical research. Another way to use this adjective is to mean "emotionally cold" or "impersonal." If you have a choice between a detached, clinical French teacher and a warm, charming one, you might be more likely to choose the latter. This second meaning of clinical, from the mid-1920s, originally meant "as unemotional as a medical report."
Vocabulary lists containing clinical
"The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury
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Just Mercy
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National Nurses Week: Common Medical Terms
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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.
It’s a treat to see Spielberg enjoying staging this conspiratorial gossip in different film stocks, from the black-and-white noir of 1947 Roswell to the clinical security-camera look of today.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
Now, a Phase II clinical trial suggests that two relatively simple interventions, exercise and low-dose ibuprofen, may help reduce some of these cognitive challenges.
From Science Daily • Jun. 10, 2026
At a major cancer-research meeting last week where both Nuvalent and competitors presented clinical trial data for lung-cancer drugs, “I really became convinced that this was a deal that we needed to do,” Miels said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
Currently, apitegromab is only available for use in clinical trials and must be given into a vein as an infusion.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
Their fifty-three patients were, in effect, a clinical trial, and an astonishingly successful one.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
