clinical

[klin-i-kuhl]

adjective

1. pertaining to a clinic.

2. concerned with or based on actual observation and treatment of disease in patients rather than experimentation or theory.

3. extremely objective and realistic; dispassionately analytic; unemotionally critical.

   She regarded him with clinical detachment.

4. pertaining to or used in a sickroom.

   a clinical bandage.

5. Ecclesiastical.

   1. (of a sacrament) administered on a deathbed or sickbed.

   2. (of a convert or conversion) made on a deathbed or sickbed.

clinical

/ ˈklɪnɪkəl /

adjective

1. of or relating to a clinic

2. 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

3. scientifically detached; strictly objective

   a clinical attitude to life

4. plain, simple, and usually unattractive

   clinical furniture

Other Word Forms

• clinicalness noun
• clinically adverb
• nonclinical adjective
• nonclinically adverb
• overclinical adjective
• overclinically adverb
• semiclinical adjective
• semiclinically adverb
• unclinical adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of clinical¹

First recorded in 1770–80; clinic + -al ¹

Related Words

• analytic 
• impersonal 
• scientific