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• cure
  cure

  noun

  a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.
• curé
  curé

  noun

  (in France) a parish priest.

cure

¹ American  

[kyoor] / kjʊər /

noun

• cures
  plural

1. a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.

2. a method or course of remedial treatment, as for disease.

   Synonyms:

   antidote, specific, restorative, remedy

3. successful remedial treatment; restoration to health.

4. a means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.

   The administration is seeking a cure for inflation.

5. the act or a method of preserving meat, fish, etc., by smoking, salting, or the like.

6. spiritual or religious charge of the people in a certain district.

7. the office or district of a curate or parish priest.

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verb (used with object)

• cures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cured,
  past participle,  past
• curing
  present participle

1. to restore to health.

2. to relieve or rid of something detrimental, such as an illness or a bad habit.

3. to correct (a document, especially a mail-in ballot) in order to make it valid.

   If the voter’s signature is missing, the county board sends them a certification form allowing the voter to cure the ballot so it can be counted.

4. to prepare (meat, fish, etc.) for preservation by salting, drying, etc.

5. to promote hardening of (fresh concrete or mortar), as by keeping it damp.

6. to process (rubber, tobacco, etc.) as by fermentation or aging.

verb (used without object)

• cures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cured,
  past participle,  past
• curing
  present participle

1. to effect a cure.

2. to become cured.

curé ² American  

[kyoo-rey, kyoor-ey, ky-rey] / kjʊˈreɪ, ˈkjʊər eɪ, küˈreɪ /

noun

• curés
  plural

1. (in France) a parish priest.

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cure ¹ British  

/ kjʊə /

verb

1. (tr) to get rid of (an ailment, fault, or problem); heal

2. (tr) to restore to health or good condition

3. (intr) to bring about a cure

4. (tr) to preserve (meat, fish, etc) by salting, smoking, etc

5. (tr)

   1. to treat or finish (a substance) by chemical or physical means

   2. to vulcanize (rubber)

   3. to allow (a polymer) to set often using heat or pressure

6. (tr) to assist the hardening of (concrete, mortar, etc) by keeping it moist

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noun

1. a return to health, esp after specific treatment

2. any course of medical therapy, esp one proved effective in combating a disease

3. a means of restoring health or improving a condition, situation, etc

4. the spiritual and pastoral charge of a parish

   the cure of souls

5. a process or method of preserving meat, fish, etc, by salting, pickling, or smoking

curé ² British  

/ ˈkjʊəreɪ /

noun

1. a parish priest in France

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cure Idioms  

1. see kill or cure; ounce of prevention (is worth a pound of cure); sure cure.

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Synonym Usage

Cure, heal, remedy imply making well, whole, or right. Cure is applied to the eradication of disease or sickness: to cure a headache. Heal suggests the making whole of wounds, sores, etc.: to heal a burn. Remedy applies especially to making wrongs right: to remedy a mistake.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• curer
  noun
• cureless
  adjective
• half-cured
  adjective
• overcured
  adjective
• semicured
  adjective
• uncured
  adjective
• well-cured
  adjective
• curelessly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cures
  plural
• curés
  plural

Participles

• curing
  present
• cured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cure
  simple
• cures
  simple
• have cured
  perfect
• has cured
  perfect
• am curing
  progressive
• are curing
  progressive
• is curing
  progressive
• have been curing
  perfect progressive
• has been curing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cured
  simple
• had cured
  perfect
• was curing
  progressive
• were curing
  progressive
• had been curing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cure
  simple
• will have cured
  perfect
• will be curing
  progressive
• will have been curing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of cure¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, Old French noun cure, from Latin cūra “care”; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of curé²

1645–55; < French, Old French; modeled on Medieval Latin cūrātus parish priest; see curate

Explanation

A cure is a treatment that ends an illness or makes you feel better. There is no cure for the common cold, or for a broken heart. Waaaaa. Many researchers focus on finding cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes — while it is possible to recover from incurable illnesses, it's not possible to cure them. You could also say, "This Florida winter is going to cure me of missing Minnesota!" When someone cures meat or fish, they smoke or salt it to preserve it. The Latin root is curare, "take care of."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cure curé cures curés cured curing

“We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026

The condition, which has no cure, means Mollie can only safely go outside while wearing protective full-length clothing or after dark.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

"You can treat the symptoms... but there's no cure for black lung."

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

Then, because the pills cost tens of thousands of dollars and could bankrupt budgets, state after state decided you couldn’t have the cure until your liver had scarred badly enough to prove you needed it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

She had taught me to read in order to help cure my whooping cough and asthma.

From "March Forward, Girl" by Melba Pattillo Beals

His lordship hurled the skull furiously after him as he ran, at which the curé gave a shout of dismay and put forth his arm to hinder him, but was too late.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

And the curé pointed at Mangis with his staff.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

"Mayhap 'twas for that I did propose it," said the curé subtly.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

The parish was small, the parishioners greedy; and never gave their curé a doit more than he could compel.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

"The young people give me a crown, and I undo my work handsomely; tell the curé I was misinformed; and all goes smoothly."

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

It’s not a silver bullet that cures polarization, settles complicated policy debates or ensures that everyone gets along.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026

"All she had read online was that it cures cancer."

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Essentially, the man appears to be opting out of the medical establishment altogether, while using his own girlfriend and his “clone baby” as experimental proving grounds for self-starter cures involving lots of peptides.

From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026

FDA approved anti amyloid therapies now target disease biology in early Alzheimer's, though they are not cures and do not restore lost memory or cognitive function.

From Science Daily ● May 27, 2026

In the case of springs rich in mineral salts, the cures are easily explained: the salts would help to clean and dry up skin infections.

From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz

In the case of the French curés, the crucial story was that of Christ’s life and death as told by the Catholic Church.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

During the same elections the curés were officially forbidden to advise their people to vote for 'friends of religion,' and those who did so advise were fined after the election to the number of 300!

From France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 by William Henry Hurlbert

The Bishop did as he pleased, in the appointment of curés.

From The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation Volume 1 by Charles Roger

Meanwhile, the letters in which Turgot explained his views and wishes to the curés, by them to be imparted to their parishes, are masterpieces of the care, the patience, the interest, of a good ruler.

From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) Turgot by John Morley

V. The church livings shall be, like the dioceses, rearranged; and the curés be appointed by the bishop, but not without the approbation of the government.

From The History of Napoleon Buonaparte by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart

A handful of sellers gather in front of the burnt-out shell offering tomatoes, cheese and cured meets on makeshift tables.

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

While it cannot be cured, there are treatments that can help manage it.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

For years, doctors treated patients suffering from severe, chronic hepatitis C with an expensive drug regimen that required six to 12 months of treatment, had nasty side effects and rarely cured the disease.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

I considered prosciutto, roast beef, cured meats and even a pickle-heavy chickpea salad.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026

‘The evil of Sauron cannot be wholly cured, nor made as if it had not been. But to such days we are doomed. Let us now go on with the journey we have begun!’

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Before her death Lomas raised £925,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, external - a charity committed to funding research into curing spinal cord injury.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

“So they don’t need to spend as much on curing illness; they spend a lot more on getting services in place to prevent illness,” he said.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

But instead of ending capital punishment in the United States, the Furman decision set off a scramble in which states reenacted their death penalty laws in the hope of curing the problem Justice Douglas identified.

From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2026

Croft and Neale know they aren’t necessarily close to the finish line when it comes to curing dementia.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

“Oh, sweetie, I would have if I could. If she’d left the hair in my curing soup, she’d be well today.”

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Related Words

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