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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-ray, kyoor-ay, ky-ray] / 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

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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

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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

In the filing, meant to whet investors’ appetites for the offering, Anthropic said its technology could transform how people code, conduct research, automate routine tasks and even help cure major diseases.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

"This temporal window holds profound significance, as attaining such early detection would substantially augment the probability of cure and improved survival," highlight the researchers.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026

There is a simple reason this may be happening: High yields eventually become the cure for high yields.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

ME has no known cure or specific treatment, with patients often relying on off-label medication to manage a condition that can cause more than 200 symptoms, including nausea, headaches, poor cognitive function and brain fog.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Nathan remembered Devin saying that the N’daa wasn’t going to miraculously cure Uncle Jet and that he would need therapy as well.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

It was lucky for our magician that he had already told his tale in full to the curé: for thus that shrewd personage had hold of the stick at the right end.

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

"Gramercy for thy rede, curé," cried the great man, reproachfully.

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

Well, one fine day they met in secret, and sent a churchwarden with a complaint to the bishop, and a thunderbolt fell on the poor curé.

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

Then the curé guessed where the shoe pinched.

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

Surgery cures most breast cancers, but if some disease remains, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy can reduce the long-term risk.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

Indeed, Amodei goes on to say that this finding could be a step toward developing cures for most diseases in five to 10 years.

From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026

If A.I. companies got into certain commercial models, they could start promoting sponsored results, such as pseudoscientific cures.

From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026

I work for a company that supports better healthcare payment decisions and believes technology can guide patients to cures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

Anna must have told me dozens of cures, stuffing them into my head the way you’d stuff the potatoes into a rush bowl.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

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

There is a great love for the culte here among our people—a very great love for it; but they do not like to be meddled with in politics by the curés or the priests.

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

He came with four other secular curés, and continued the exorcisms for three days, without any success.

From The Phantom World or, The philosophy of spirits, apparitions, &c, &c. by Henry Christmas

Our fellow-travellers consisted of a couple of greasy, black-haired, sallow-faced curés, two farmers' wives with a puking child each, our own portly self, and the sixth passenger.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 357, June, 1845 by Various

And the most clever men-cooks, the happiest receipts, and latest culinary inventions—for whom are they? the answer is always, for messieurs les curés.

From Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches by William Jesse

Manganiello revealed he’s since had reconstructive surgery on his digestive tract and is seemingly cured.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

The image problem doesn't seem to have been cured by Meta's enlistment this summer of Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian's sister, as their prime model.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Because the disorder can be treated and, in some cases, potentially cured, detecting it earlier could help reduce the risk of preventable cardiovascular complications.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026

OpenAI founder Sam Altman and others have said that many of today’s diseases could be mitigated if not cured in the next decade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

“I muscle-tested it. It was cancer. I cured it.”

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

The couple created the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization whose efforts include curing, managing and preventing all diseases.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

Pioneer bought additional tooling and experimented with changes in temperature and curing times to better understand and fix the problem.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

The lesson from the US however, has been that talking about benefits to the overall national economy, or potentially curing cancer, does not always cut it locally.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

The United States spends much more on actual medical care, Cohen said, in terms of curing illnesses — but much less on preventative care.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

“Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe I’d cause a flood and people would be killed. That’s the problem with big magic. I only do little magic. Good cooking, my curing soup, my Tonic.”

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

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