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premed

American  
[pree-med] / priˈmɛd /

noun

  • premeds
    plural
  1. a program of premedical study or training.

  2. a student enrolled in such a program.


adjective

  1. of or relating to premedical studies.

premed British  
/ priːˈmɛd /

adjective

  1. short for premedical

"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

noun

  1. short for premedication

  2. a premedical student

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of premed

First recorded in 1960–65; short for premedical


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:

When Yang, 35, and Rogers, 36, met their freshman year on New York University’s sketch comedy scene, Yang was a premed student.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026

But when the Stockton resident enrolled at UC Davis, he changed his mind — and opted for biology, a common premed major.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025

Sancho was a premed student and a beauty queen before she switched her focus to mass communications and began writing for The Manila Bulletin.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

Yacoub graduated this year and plans to attend Johns Hopkins University with a double major in premed and public health.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2022

Even though she was premed, she made a point of taking pottery and dance classes for the simple reason that they made her happy.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

YMCAT: Young men, a bunch of premeds/ I said young men, there’s plenty of beds .

From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2019

For a while, the boom seemed like a lasting phenomenon: Will Smith beat-boxed as “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” on NBC; on “A Different World,” activists, premeds, and Jack-and-Jill princesses sparred and flirted.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 25, 2016

I encourage them to use this day to work on other, less tangible parts of their application – and premeds will know how their peers hate doing something that's not premed related.

From US News ● Jul. 7, 2015

Latin last semester, an accelerated programme for premeds.

From Nature ● Sep. 18, 2013

Back in D.C., in October 2010, Hatfill and I were descending in an elevator at George Washington University, where he had just shown a class of premeds how to stanch wounds with tourniquets.

From Newsweek

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