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:
Once, a deputy commander took his order for medicine, then asked what else he needed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
The results highlight the potential of precision medicine, an approach that considers individual characteristics, including genetics, when determining which treatments may be most effective.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
One was an 18th Century medicine chest which was removed from the White House when the British set it on fire in 1812.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
That raises the possibility of applications not only in human medicine but also in veterinary care, particularly for aging companion animals such as dogs and cats.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026
“And yet,” she said, as though we had been discussing the subject, “what do doctors know? Dr. Blinker prescribed this tonic—but what can medicine really do? What good does anything do when one’s Day arrives?”
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
He suggested that the authorities could introduce a system to track the distribution and purchase of medicines to help identify possible misuse.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
It went on to encourage its members not to knowingly dispense medicines that would be misused - and report any side affects to the health authorities of those that had been.
From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026
The Manning Institute was established to speed the discovery and development of new medicines and potential cures for some of the most difficult diseases.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
AstraZeneca said it benefited from double-digit sales growth in its oncology, respiratory and immunology, and rare disease therapeutic areas, which allowed it to offset hits from generic competition for aging medicines Farxiga and Brilinta.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Anyway, within a few minutes of Mama’s return—she asked a series of seemingly well-rehearsed questions about nurses and medicines and joint pain and how he’d been feeling—we got up to leave.
From "Fast Pitch" by Nic Stone
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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