medicine
Americannoun
-
medicines
plural
-
any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.
- Synonyms:
- physic, pharmaceutical, drug, medication
-
the art or science of restoring or preserving health or due physical condition, as by means of drugs, surgical operations or appliances, or manipulations: often divided into medicine proper, surgery, and obstetrics.
-
the art or science of treating disease with drugs or curative substances, as distinguished from surgery and obstetrics.
-
the medical profession.
-
(among North American Indians) any object or practice regarded as having magical powers.
verb (used with object)
idioms
-
give someone a dose / taste of his / her own medicine, to repay or punish a person for an injury by use of the offender's own methods.
-
take one's medicine, to undergo or accept punishment, especially deserved punishment.
He took his medicine like a man.
noun
-
any drug or remedy for use in treating, preventing, or alleviating the symptoms of disease
-
the science of preventing, diagnosing, alleviating, or curing disease
-
any nonsurgical branch of medical science
-
the practice or profession of medicine
he's in medicine
-
something regarded by primitive people as having magical or remedial properties
-
to accept a deserved punishment
-
an unpleasant experience in retaliation for and by similar methods to an unkind or aggressive act
-
The scientific study or practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases or disorders of the body or mind of a person or animal.
-
An agent, such as a drug, used to treat disease or injury.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of medicine
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English medicin, from Latin medicīna (ars) “healing (art),” feminine of medicīnus “pertaining to a physician,” from medic(us) “physician” ( cf. medical) + -īnus -ine 1
Explanation
Medicine is the field (and body of knowledge) that teaches doctors how to help people. Doctors also give medicine to patients. Cough syrup, antibiotics, and pills are all forms of medicine. When someone gives you medicine, they are medicating you. People who study medicine become doctors and nurses. Without the field of medicine — which expands all the time — there would be so much more sickness and death. Medicine is devoted to finding out everything about health, illness, and the human body.
Vocabulary lists containing medicine
National Nurses Week: Common Medical Terms
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Abbey Road
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 4
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
“Football was his medicine at that time, where it wasn’t as serious as what he was going through.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
For instance, the line “The medicine will help you to: Kill as many myeloma cells as possible” was mistranslated as instructing the patient to somehow kill as many myeloma cells as possible.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
That depends not only on what medicine can do after disease arrives but also on how early we see it coming, and what we do to keep ourselves safe once we know.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
The Libyan authorities handed over a plastic "trash bag" containing some of his belongings, including a Quran, a prayer rug, clothing, toiletries, and medicine.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Then he closed the medicine cabinet and leaned over so that he could see his white-bearded face in the mirror.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
The partnership marks the latest to pair pharmaceutical and AI companies, as drugmakers turn to the technology in a bid to speed up the discovery and development of new medicines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
"Individual health boards are responsible for decisions on the implementation and availability of medicines, including obesity medicines," she said.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
For 20 minutes, we pressed on his chest and pushed medicines, but despite our best efforts, we could not revive him.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Many molecules have a similar property, including compounds used in medicines.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
He would point out medicinal leaves and trees whose barks were important medicines.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
The active employment, the all-engrossing interest which would have medicined his unslumbering sorrow, were remedial agents denied by his father's unwise decree.
From Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie
For two long weeks had he to be abed, he, who, as he himself told, had never to this day needed any healing but such as the leech who medicined his beasts could give him.
From Margery — Complete by Georg Ebers
Would he allow me to wear out life with famine; or was the food administered to me to be medicined with death?
From The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
For two long weeks had he to he abed, he, who, as he himself told, had never to this day needed any healing but such as the leech who medicined his beasts could give him.
From Margery — Volume 08 by Clara Bell
The hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald's mother, first and engrossing study, and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing melancholy.
From Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie
Go thou thy way, sorrowful and suffering soul, alone; and if thy own heart bleeds, strive thou to soothe its pangs, by medicining the wounds and healing the hurts of another.
From What Answer? by Anna E. Dickinson
As the night struggles slowly into day so sickness climbs stealthily into health, and nature has a system of medicining her ailments which might only be thwarted by the ministrations of a mere doctor.
From Mary, Mary by Padraic Colum
A great great sin plots in the house this day; Too strong for the faithful, beyond medicining … And help stands far away.
From The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Gilbert Murray
And she Shall know no more its tender, sweet caress, Soft medicining woe.
From Lilith The Legend of the First Woman by Ada Langworthy Collier
Thus, by the secret hand of Thy medicining was my swelling abated, and the troubled and bedimmed eyesight of my mind, by the smarting anointings of healthful sorrows, was from day to day healed.
From The Confessions of St. Augustine by E. B. (Edward Bouverie) Pusey
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
