clinically

American  

[kli-nik-lee] / ˈklɪ nɪk li /

adverb

1. in a clinical way.

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Explanation

When a medication has been clinically proven, it's been tested on actual patients. Clinically can also describe a cold and detached manner, a personality better suited to robots than people. It's a good thing when doctors and scientists do things clinically, because they're not only using studies and statistics to make decisions — they're talking to and observing patients. On the other hand, when a doctor treats you clinically at your yearly appointment, she is efficient but aloof, rather than warm and welcoming. Clinically is from clinical, from the Latin clinicus, "physician who visits patients in their beds," with the Greek root klinike, "at the sickbed."

Example Sentences

But a more recent study, “Sperm concentration remains stable among fertile American men” published in January, found no clinically significant decline in sperm concentration among American men between 1970 and 2018.

From Salon • May 15, 2026

A Medicare official recently said that paying for care that isn’t clinically appropriate is “just not something we should accept as Americans.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 22, 2026

"When I treat patients in the diabetes clinic, I see a huge variation in response to these GLP-1-based medications and it is difficult to predict this response clinically," Umapathysivam said.

From Science Daily • Apr. 12, 2026

Delayed discharges, which occur when a patient is clinically ready to leave a hospital but is forced to remain in a bed because necessary social care, support, or housing is unavailable, are incomparable.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

Large numbers of malignant tumors are discovered clinically in children under the age of five, but it is an even grimmer fact that significant numbers of such growths are present at or before birth.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson