therapy

American  

[ther-uh-pee] / ˈθɛr ə pi /

noun

therapies plural

1. the treatment of disease or disorders, as by some remedial, rehabilitating, or curative process.

   speech therapy.

2. a curative power or quality.

3. psychotherapy.

4. any act, hobby, task, program, etc., that relieves tension.

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therapy British  

/ ˈθɛrəpɪ /

noun

1. 1. the treatment of physical, mental, or social disorders or disease

   2. ( in combination )

      physiotherapy

      electrotherapy

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therapy Cultural  

1. Treatment intended to cure or alleviate an illness or injury, whether physical or mental.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-therapy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• therapies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of therapy

1840–50; < New Latin therapīa < Greek therapeía healing (akin to therápōn attendant)

Explanation

Therapy is the act of caring for someone, or the method of caring. If you have a rare disease, your doctor's therapy will hopefully cure you. Therapy comes from the Greek θεραπεία, for "healing." If someone tells you she's "in therapy," she's probably talking about a psychological kind of healing. But if she's getting physical therapy, then she's getting help with a bone or muscle problem. If someone suggests an experimental therapy, that's a mode of treatment that's new. Sometimes if something non-medical makes you feel better, we call it a kind of therapy. You might like chocolate therapy, for example.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

therapy therapies

The “no-contact” advice that floods social media and some therapy rooms treats complex human relationships as disposable commodities.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

Although it has improved, she sometimes still cannot find a word and uses strategies learned through speech and language therapy.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Instead of waiting until the first treatment stops working, doctors could switch to a second therapy while the tumor is still responding.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

"He's ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life."

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

It said with the extra resources they planned to increase the rehabilitation side of the program, including more one-on-one therapy sessions and educational and career counseling.

From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña

In happier news, rising case counts have jump-started research into drugs that could treat people who do get sick, including antibody and antiviral therapies.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

By pairing these therapies with weight-loss medications, Yancopoulos hopes to focus on the quality of weight reduction so patients get stronger rather than just thinner.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

About 15 years ago, the FDA briefly granted the peptide an orphan-drug designation, which provides incentives to a developer to work on therapies for diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026

Treatment choices would still depend on the tumor type, its size, available therapies, and a patient's overall health.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

Rather, she says the technology—coupled with brain imaging—began to offer hope that real therapies could be developed for attention-related issues.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

Related Words

• analysis
• cure
• healing
• medicine
• remedy