physical medicine

American  

noun

1. the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury by means of physical agents, as manipulation, massage, exercise, heat, or water.

---

physical medicine British  

noun

1. the branch of medicine devoted to the management of physical disabilities, as resulting from rheumatic disease, asthma, poliomyelitis, etc See also rehabilitation

---

physical medicine Scientific  

1. The branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease and disability by physical means such as manipulation, massage, and exercise, often with mechanical devices, and the application of heat, cold, electricity, radiation, and water.

---

Etymology

Origin of physical medicine

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Without candor during a history and physical, medicine fails.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2026

Page is professor of clinical pharmacy, medicine and physical medicine at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado.

From Science Daily • Feb. 28, 2024

"It isn't easy because it's so monotonous and someone can easily lose attentional focus," said Joe Giacino, a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School.

From Salon • Aug. 6, 2022

Trained in pediatric neurology as well as physical medicine and rehabilitation, Dr. Ellwood ran a clinic in Minneapolis before he began working on national health policy in the late 1960s.

From Washington Post • Jun. 22, 2022

Psychiatry was specialized, these days, as physical medicine had been before it.

From Operation: Outer Space by Leinster, Murray