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  • nurse-practitioner
    nurse-practitioner
    noun
    a registered nurse who has received special training for diagnosing and treating routine or minor ailments. NP
  • nurse practitioner
    nurse practitioner
    noun
    a nurse who has specialized advanced skills in diagnosis, psychosocial assessment, and patient management and is permitted to prescribe certain drugs
Synonyms

nurse-practitioner

American  
[nurs-prak-tish-uh-ner] / ˈnɜrs prækˈtɪʃ ə nər /
Or nurse practitioner

noun

  1. a registered nurse who has received special training for diagnosing and treating routine or minor ailments. NP


nurse practitioner British  

noun

  1. a nurse who has specialized advanced skills in diagnosis, psychosocial assessment, and patient management and is permitted to prescribe certain drugs

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of nurse-practitioner

First recorded in 1975–80

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:

One that did said that they heard hospitals were focusing on a nurse-practitioner led ER-staffing model, so they were holding off on physician hires for now.

From Slate May 1, 2020

Sister Bernie is a nurse-practitioner who first persuaded Stan Brock to bring RAM to Virginia back in 1999.

From The Guardian Nov. 23, 2016

At the end of his final year of trading, he is offered a $3.6-million bonus—“more,” he writes, “than my mom, a nurse-practitioner midwife, had earned in her entire life.”

From The New Yorker Jul. 28, 2016

Warm and friendly, Mr. Hartman, 50, has a habit of talking adoringly about his nurse-practitioner wife and track-star daughters in a winning Texas twang.

From New York Times Feb. 10, 2016

A few days later she took me to a nurse-practitioner, who listened to my yearnings for my mother.

From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Natalie Desseyn is a double-board-certified nurse practitioner in family and psychiatric medicine.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 21, 2026

There were no red flags in his test results, he says, but he still met with a nurse practitioner trained in preventive neurology in the hopes of optimizing his health.

From The Wall Street Journal Jun. 15, 2026

The patient’s sister-in-law told them a nurse practitioner “came to the home a few times to treat J.L.’s flesh infection and “did not treat the open wounds often because they were too infected.”

From Los Angeles Times Apr. 28, 2026

A Glendale nurse practitioner is warning area residents to be on alert for a mountain lion that attacked and dragged away her dog Monday evening just outside her home.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 25, 2026

I want to be a nurse practitioner, so I figure it's a good gig to warm up on.

From "How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

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