convalesce
Americanverb (used without object)
-
convalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
convalesced,
past participle, past
-
convalescing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
convalescesimple
-
convalescessimple
-
have convalescedperfect
-
has convalescedperfect
-
am convalescingprogressive
-
are convalescingprogressive
-
is convalescingprogressive
-
have been convalescingperfect progressive
-
has been convalescingperfect progressive
Past
-
convalescedsimple
-
had convalescedperfect
-
was convalescingprogressive
-
were convalescingprogressive
-
had been convalescingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of convalesce
1475–85; < Latin convalēscere to grow fully strong, equivalent to con- con- + valēscere to grow strong ( val ( ēre ) to be well + -escere -esce )
Explanation
Convalesce is a soft-sounding word, and it describes something you should do in a soft bed: recover from an illness. When someone is convalescing, you can be sure something bad happened to them. Maybe they were hit by a car, had a heart attack, or got a bad case of the flu. People convalesce in hospitals, or, if things are a little less serious, at home. A nursing home is sometimes called a "convalescent home," because the old people who live there often have health problems. When you're sick or hurt badly enough to be convalescing, the good news is that you're starting to heal and have time to catch up on books or TV.
Vocabulary lists containing convalesce
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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!
This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for October 3–9, 2020
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!
In the Time of the Butterflies
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:
To convalesce, they stay in this compound, and exercise by walking around its well-ordered clusters of three-story buildings and a synthetic turf avenue with a playground and soccer field.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
Palace hopes that she would be left alone to convalesce were dashed.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
A volunteer with the group drove the bird to the Tri-State Bird Rescue in Delaware, where the owl continues to convalesce and regain the strength to fly regularly.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
Krige plays Veronica Ghent, an actress who just had a double mastectomy and wants to convalesce at a rustic retreat in the Scottish Highlands.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2022
Afterward, most patients were sent off to outlying hospitals to convalesce.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
We’re doing this interview over Skype – me in London lockdown, he at his 78-year-old mother’s house in the hills above Los Angeles: he’s looking after her while she convalesces from surgery.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2020
As Farrell’s character convalesces, it becomes increasingly unclear whether he is manipulating his female caregivers or whether they are playing out their own power games through him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2017
The hospital in which Moose convalesces from his heart attack is “a department store for sadness”; his cough is “small, way short of a proper hack, a kind of diet cough.”
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 14, 2016
Lundqvist is expected to miss at least two more weeks as he convalesces after a vascular injury to his neck.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2015
"Should he recover, it will take a month, or, perhaps, two, before he convalesces."
From The Daltons, Volume II (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever
Cinderella underwent a successful operation at VCA Lakewood Hospital and convalesced at a volunteer’s home for a month.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Lincoln helped run the government for months while Garfield convalesced, and though it initially seemed like the president would recover, his wounds became infected, and he died on Sept. 19, 1881.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2021
He painted it at the Saint-Paul asylum in southern France, where he convalesced.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2020
She decided, too, that it would be good to perform as she convalesced, even when her stamina was low.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2015
For five years now she had convalesced in confinement, but she still had not healed.
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Robert Dickman, for one, was convalescing at a hospital in Queens.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
Maradona was convalescing when he died of a heart attack at his home in 2020, aged 60.
From BBC ● Mar. 11, 2025
Pink needed two surgeries and almost two months of recovery at the same aviary where Blue is convalescing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2024
He handed out plush toys to convalescing children at a medical trauma center.
From New York Times ● Jan. 22, 2024
Despite the fact that Mr. Muhammad, convalescing, could no longer work the daily long hours he had previously worked in Chicago, he was now more than ever burdened with heavy decision-making and administrative duties.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
