Hippocrates

American  

[hi-pok-ruh-teez] / hɪˈpɒk rəˌtiz /

noun

1. Father of Medicine, c460–c377 b.c., Greek physician.

---

Hippocrates British  

/ hɪˈpɒkrəˌtiːz /

noun

1. ?460–?377 _bc , Greek physician, commonly regarded as the father of medicine

---

Hippocrates Scientific  

/ hĭ-pŏk′rə-tēz′ /

1. Greek physician who is credited with establishing the foundations of scientific medicine. He and his followers worked to distinguish medicine from superstition and magic beliefs by basing their treatment of illness on close observation and rational deduction.

---

Hippocrates Cultural  

1. An ancient Greek physician (the “father of medicine”) who is credited with founding the study of medicine.

---

Other Word Forms

• Hippocratic adjective
• Hippocratical adjective

Example Sentences

The Greek medical tradition, starting with Hippocrates, tried to make sickness a secular matter.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

For centuries, scientists have noticed that certain illnesses seem to pass from one generation to the next, a connection first noted by Hippocrates, who observed that some diseases "ran in families."

From Science Daily • Oct. 18, 2025

Hippocrates even wrote about castoreum’s healing properties of castoreum in 500 B.C.

From National Geographic • Nov. 15, 2023

To make it weirder, the association that trained Johnson bases their ideas on the teachings of the Greek physician Hippocrates, who died in 370 B.C., and believed that women's wombs could "wander" through their bodies.

From Salon • Nov. 1, 2023

Whatever happened to winning the heavyweight championship for Hippocrates?

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris