sanatorium
Americannoun
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sanatoriums,
plural
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sanatoria
plural
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a hospital for the treatment of chronic diseases, as tuberculosis or various nervous or mental disorders.
noun
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an institution for the medical care and recuperation of persons who are chronically ill
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a health resort
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a room in a boarding school where sick pupils may be treated in isolation
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sanatorium
1830–40; < New Latin, equivalent to Latin sanā ( re ) to heal + -tōrium -tory 2
Explanation
A sanatorium is a place to go when you're suffering or recuperating from a long illness. It was once common for tuberculosis patients to be treated at a sanatorium. In some parts of the world, including Russia and the Czech Republic, a sanatorium is more of a health spa, with the added benefit of available medical treatments. While there are very few sanatoriums left in North America, they were once the preferred location for chronically ill patients, especially before antibiotics for treating tuberculosis were developed in the mid-20th century. The Latin sanus, "well, healthy, or sane," is the root of sanatorium.
Vocabulary lists containing sanatorium
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:
Rowlands spent two years in a sanatorium as a child recovering from tuberculosis, a disease which claimed his sister Megan's life, and in the early 1990s he overcame bowel cancer.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2023
Later, a group of 31 were sent to “a sanatorium for children in Moscow.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2023
The relentless 10-month war has prompted a local commander to transform a Soviet-era sanatorium into a recovery center for servicemen to treat both mental and physical ailments.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2023
It’s a new chapter for the facility that the Maryknoll Sisters began as a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1920s for Japanese patients no other medical centers would treat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2022
Doody spent four years in a tuberculosis sanatorium and refers to himself as a “lunger”—slang for someone who suffers from a disease of the lungs.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
The old sanatoria in the Alps to which European TB patients lucky enough to have wealthy relatives might be sent focused on cleanliness, fresh air and sunlight, ample nutritious food and rest.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2025
Crawford estimates that in 1925 alone the couple spent a third of their income on doctors, medicines, and stays in hospitals or sanatoria.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2022
The plaintiff in the case is John Pambrun, 77, a First Nations man who spent nearly six years of his childhood in Indian hospitals and sanatoria.
From The Guardian ● May 11, 2018
Rehab centers have the feel of pre-modern sanatoria.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2016
Now our sanatoria are nearly all founded on some special principle of therapeutics.
From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
His tuberculosis, which before it killed him at age 40 led to rest “cures” at sanatoriums notable chiefly for their ineffectiveness?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
The southern town of Yalta was the prime holiday destination during Soviet times, with many sanatoriums built in and around it.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2023
"The Moscow region is already ready to accept 500 Belgorod residents at one of its sanatoriums," he said, adding that transport, food and accommodation would all be provided for free.
From Reuters ● Oct. 21, 2022
Like tuberculosis sanatoriums, the clean, smooth surfaces of the architecture of this era offered an anesthetic to disease and trauma.
From Slate ● Apr. 19, 2020
Extended care and physical therapy for patients suffering from chronic ailments were offered by 182 sanatoriums and health spas with a total bed capacity of 16,104.
From Area Handbook for Bulgaria by Violeta D. Baluyut
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.
