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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Neighborhood Odes
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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:
Jibril, 38 years old when he died, had studied veterinary medicine in Yemen and ran a charity in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
The Templo Mayor Museum, which displays artifacts found at the site, reveals their genius for engineering, herbal medicine and astronomy, as well as their artistic skills, including stone sculptures, exquisite ceramics and delicate jewelry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
It immediately draw parallels with the Covid pandemic with its aerial shots of abandoned cities and Hig's constant search for resources like food and medicine.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Professional students, a group that includes those pursuing degrees in medicine, dentistry or law, can borrow a maximum of $50,000 a year and a total of $200,000, according to the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
He ran all the way to the medicine man’s, through cobbled streets, past groups of men sipping coriander tea and beautiful pillared villas.
From "The Boy Who Met a Whale" by Nizrana Farook
The risks may be greater when medicines come from unregulated sources.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
The researchers also found that these approaches can increase weight loss when paired with certain GLP-1-based weight loss medicines.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
The Danish drugmaker’s CEO seems bullish on the prospects for the obesity-pill market, but Novo Nordisk might need deals to add more oral medicines to maintain its lead, according to Berenberg.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Drug companies that price their medicines consistently below the threshold could ensure patients have unfettered access to their drugs, meaning no prior authorization, while those that price above that threshold would jeopardize their patent protection.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
There were other hospitals in the region, but none was as well equipped or well managed, and each charged patients for medicines and supplies.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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
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
He was flattered and pleased at being taken seriously and bidden to think in this straightforward, manly fashion; it unstrung his reserve and medicined to his wounded self-respect.
From South Wind by Norman Douglas
But the slave-girl medicined herself and became well; and she kept what remained of the poison and sold it to those who asked for it.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 14 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Each boat that puts to sea has been medicined with care, many incantations and other magic observances having been had recourse to, in obedience to the rules which the superstitious people have followed for ages.
From In Court and Kampong Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford
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
A great great sin plots in the house this day; Too strong for the faithful, beyond medicining … And help stands far away.
From The Agamemnon of Aeschylus Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes by Gilbert Murray
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
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
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
Definitions 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.
