general practitioner

American  

noun

1. a medical practitioner whose practice is not limited to any specific branch of medicine or class of diseases. G.P.

---

general practitioner British  

noun

1. Informal name: family doctor.   GP.  a physician who does not specialize but has a medical practice ( general practice ) in which he deals with all illnesses

---

Etymology

Origin of general practitioner

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

In “Doc Martin,” Clunes played a brilliant London surgeon who develops a blood phobia and becomes a general practitioner in the Cornwall fishing village where he spent summers as a child.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 4, 2026

After eight years as a general practitioner in some of Thailand's poorest and most remote regions, he obtained a master's degree and PhD in anthropology at Harvard University.

From Barron's • Dec. 28, 2025

Anyone who’s ever seen a doctor knows that face-to-face time with a general practitioner tends to be much shorter, usually only about 15 minutes.

From Slate • Aug. 1, 2025

Dr Gunter said that women who aren’t getting help from a general practitioner should ask to see a specialist.

From BBC • Dec. 6, 2024

So he sat down and, in his free evenings and weekends, wrote an eight-hundred-page textbook on the subject, painstakingly reviewing the available evidence for the most common problems a general practitioner might encounter.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• family doctor