physician
Americannoun
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physicians
plural
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a person who is legally qualified to practice medicine; doctor of medicine.
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a person engaged in general medical practice, as distinguished from one specializing in surgery.
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a person who is skilled in the art of healing.
noun
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a person legally qualified to practise medicine, esp one specializing in areas of treatment other than surgery; doctor of medicine
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archaic any person who treats diseases; healer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of physician
1175–1225; physic + -ian ( see -ician); replacing Middle English fisicien < Old French
Explanation
A physician is a doctor. If you wake up and your eyes are red, your skin is yellow, and your tongue is swollen, find a physician, soon! When we use the word physician, we typically mean a doctor that practices general healing, as opposed to a surgeon. Physician is a very old word, coming from both Greek and Latin roots for physic, meaning "natural science and medicine."
Vocabulary lists containing physician
Occupations
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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:
This leaves some people feeling as though they have nowhere to go, says Dr Stephanie Barrett, a consultant physician and rheumatologist.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
I later knew minority status from another angle, as a white American physician in Ethiopia, and in Indonesia, a nation nearly 90% Muslim.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
He was not a dietitian or an infectious disease physician.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
The protagonist of Ibsen’s play, Dr. Thomas Stockmann, is a staff physician at the municipal spa baths, the town’s economic lifeblood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Something of a polymath, he was a Fellow of All Souls College in Oxford, physician to Edward VI and to Queen Mary, and sometime general surveyor of mines and money for the Crown.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
Pakistan's Supreme Court had on Tuesday directed the government to transfer Khan to a private hospital to be examined by physicians.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
“We’re setting up a system where people of better financial resources can get physicians who can spend more time with them,” says Weisbart.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
They must maintain nurses, physicians, technicians, operating rooms, diagnostic equipment and emergency readiness around the clock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The 27-page suit names the UC regents as defendants, along with physicians, nurses, clinical care partners and other officials who are identified as “Does 1-100.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
On Saturday evening, a group of eight physicians, most of whom had been at the train station, reconvened to discuss the case.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
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.
