medicine
Americannoun
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medicines
plural
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any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.
- Synonyms:
- physic, pharmaceutical, drug, medication
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the art or science of restoring or preserving health or due physical condition, as by means of drugs, surgical operations or appliances, or manipulations: often divided into medicine proper, surgery, and obstetrics.
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the art or science of treating disease with drugs or curative substances, as distinguished from surgery and obstetrics.
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the medical profession.
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(among North American Indians) any object or practice regarded as having magical powers.
verb (used with object)
idioms
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give someone a dose / taste of his / her own medicine, to repay or punish a person for an injury by use of the offender's own methods.
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take one's medicine, to undergo or accept punishment, especially deserved punishment.
He took his medicine like a man.
noun
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any drug or remedy for use in treating, preventing, or alleviating the symptoms of disease
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the science of preventing, diagnosing, alleviating, or curing disease
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any nonsurgical branch of medical science
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the practice or profession of medicine
he's in medicine
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something regarded by primitive people as having magical or remedial properties
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to accept a deserved punishment
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an unpleasant experience in retaliation for and by similar methods to an unkind or aggressive act
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The scientific study or practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases or disorders of the body or mind of a person or animal.
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An agent, such as a drug, used to treat disease or injury.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of medicine
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English medicin, from Latin medicīna (ars) “healing (art),” feminine of medicīnus “pertaining to a physician,” from medic(us) “physician” ( cf. medical) + -īnus -ine 1
Explanation
Medicine is the field (and body of knowledge) that teaches doctors how to help people. Doctors also give medicine to patients. Cough syrup, antibiotics, and pills are all forms of medicine. When someone gives you medicine, they are medicating you. People who study medicine become doctors and nurses. Without the field of medicine — which expands all the time — there would be so much more sickness and death. Medicine is devoted to finding out everything about health, illness, and the human body.
Vocabulary lists containing medicine
National Nurses Week: Common Medical Terms
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Abbey Road
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Unit 4
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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:
“Football was his medicine at that time, where it wasn’t as serious as what he was going through.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
But many doctors already know what medicine is like without human translators.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
F1 continues to find new ways to apply its expertise in emergency medicine.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
That depends not only on what medicine can do after disease arrives but also on how early we see it coming, and what we do to keep ourselves safe once we know.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Liz takes my hand, begins feeling along the bones like she knows something about medicine.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
Developing subcutaneous versions of injectable drugs is an area of focus for biopharma companies seeking to extend the patents for their top-selling medicines.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Most medicines on the market today work by latching onto the rough surface of a protein and blocking it from causing disease.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Scotland's Public Health Minister Maree Todd said medicines were one of a range of effective treatments for obesity, alongside a balanced diet and exercise.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
For more frequent breakouts, they might prescribe higher-strength regimens such as antibiotics or medicines with tretinoin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
In Auburn’s circles, spirits began performing all kinds of miracles, from flipping hats and playing the harp to suggesting appropriate medicines for sick relatives.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
"Fill high the bowl, benumb His aching sense With medicined sleep."—O awful in Thy woe!
From The Christian Year by John Keble
An excellent constitution soon medicined his wounds; and there was a balsam in the looks and words of Inez, that had a healing effect on the still severer wounds which he carried in his heart.
From Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists by Washington Irving
We were still at Windsor; our renewed hopes medicined the anguish we had suffered from the late tragedies.
From The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
For two long weeks had he to be abed, he, who, as he himself told, had never to this day needed any healing but such as the leech who medicined his beasts could give him.
From Margery — Complete by Georg Ebers
The hope-inspiring ministry of Ronald's mother, first and engrossing study, and ceaseless occupation next, had effectually medicined his growing melancholy.
From Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie
Go thou thy way, sorrowful and suffering soul, alone; and if thy own heart bleeds, strive thou to soothe its pangs, by medicining the wounds and healing the hurts of another.
From What Answer? by Anna E. Dickinson
And she Shall know no more its tender, sweet caress, Soft medicining woe.
From Lilith The Legend of the First Woman by Ada Langworthy Collier
As the night struggles slowly into day so sickness climbs stealthily into health, and nature has a system of medicining her ailments which might only be thwarted by the ministrations of a mere doctor.
From Mary, Mary by Padraic Colum
Certainly, now you see that all your Doctoring and medicining hath been to some purpose, and now you feel also that all herbs were made for some good effects.
From The Ten Pleasures of Marriage and the Second Part, The Confession of the New Married Couple by A. Marsh
Thus, by the secret hand of Thy medicining was my swelling abated, and the troubled and bedimmed eyesight of my mind, by the smarting anointings of healthful sorrows, was from day to day healed.
From The Confessions of St. Augustine by E. B. (Edward Bouverie) Pusey
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