medicine
Americannoun
-
medicines
plural
-
any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.
- Synonyms:
- physic, pharmaceutical, drug, medication
-
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.
-
the art or science of treating disease with drugs or curative substances, as distinguished from surgery and obstetrics.
-
the medical profession.
-
(among North American Indians) any object or practice regarded as having magical powers.
verb (used with object)
idioms
-
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.
-
take one's medicine, to undergo or accept punishment, especially deserved punishment.
He took his medicine like a man.
noun
-
any drug or remedy for use in treating, preventing, or alleviating the symptoms of disease
-
the science of preventing, diagnosing, alleviating, or curing disease
-
any nonsurgical branch of medical science
-
the practice or profession of medicine
he's in medicine
-
something regarded by primitive people as having magical or remedial properties
-
to accept a deserved punishment
-
an unpleasant experience in retaliation for and by similar methods to an unkind or aggressive act
-
The scientific study or practice of diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases or disorders of the body or mind of a person or animal.
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Abbey Road
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Unit 4
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Those who suspect they have Lewy body dementia symptoms should contact a neurologist or a clinician trained in either geriatric medicine or geriatric psychiatry for an evaluation, Vossel said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
DoorDash—now a $78 billion company—has been expanding beyond restaurants to delivering dresses from Macy’s, paper towels from Costco and cold medicine from CVS.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
"The overwhelming consensus, the overwhelming judgement, is that what we've done in this monetary medicine is starting to work some," Fed Chair Kevin Warsh said, referring to September's interest rate rise.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2026
A spokesperson said the DoH recognised "that medicine supply disruptions can be concerning for patients and the healthcare professionals who care for them".
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
Liz takes my hand, begins feeling along the bones like she knows something about medicine.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
The company added that its focus remains on “high-impact, transformational medicines to treat life-threatening diseases.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
The biopharma is moving quickly to bring new medicines to market faster.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
A jump in sales of specialty medicines allowed GSK to offset a declining vaccines revenue and a flat performance in its general medicines segment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
The report also looked at access to certain medicines prescribed to patients with cardiovascular disease.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
In a clearing spread a vast garden teeming with familiar and exotic plants, the ingredients of all the. varied medicines and liniments favored at court.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
They are gathered together as patients in a hospital are gathered, that their sickness may be medicined and their wounds dressed.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and First Book of Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, and Second Kings chapters I to VII by Alexander Maclaren
For two long weeks had he to he 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 — Volume 08 by Clara Bell
Would he allow me to wear out life with famine; or was the food administered to me to be medicined with death?
From The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The active employment, the all-engrossing interest which would have medicined his unslumbering sorrow, were remedial agents denied by his father's unwise decree.
From Fairy Fingers A Novel by Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie
This man medicined my body from without nor anointed me with aught of ointments: by Allah, surely this is none other than consummate skill!
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 01 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
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
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
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
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
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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
