clinically
Americanadverb
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Clinically, the presentation aligns with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders: persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation and impaired functioning.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 12, 2025
Sarah Steven, who is a member of the Clinically Vulnerable Families, shared Lana's account on BBC Radio Solent.
From BBC • Oct. 2, 2025
Clinically, the researchers focused on a group of patients who had developed EBV-triggered blood cancer following organ transplantation.
From Science Daily • May 23, 2024
Clinically speaking, narcissistic personality disorder is the figurative equivalent of that famous story: A narcissist places themselves on a high pedestal and engage in toxic behavior as a result.
From Salon • May 17, 2023
Clinically they may exactly resemble each other, and bacteriology has not been able to draw an absolute line between them.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" by Various
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.
