sanatorium
Americannoun
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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:
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
Eliot escaped into work, a banker by day and literary critic by night, until he suffered a breakdown that sent him to a sanatorium in Switzerland.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 11, 2022
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
There were at least two bases, at a former children's sanatorium at Lastivka, on the south-western corner of the quarter, and at a big residential complex close by.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2022
Anna Djvorak was convinced that the doctor had miraculously saved her son’s life by not sending him to the tuberculosis sanatorium back in 1903.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
I've got a chapter in the book about travel, just because it's a really time-honored approach, from the old Swiss sanatoria right all the way back through the medieval Christian tradition of pilgrimage.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2023
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 lawsuit is directed at the federal government, as it was Canada that established, funded and oversaw residential schools, Indian hospitals and sanatoria.
From The Guardian ● May 11, 2018
Rehab centers have the feel of pre-modern sanatoria.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2016
These primitive sanatoria were built in places carefully chosen for their salubrity of climate and healthful environment.
From Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery by Lawrence, Robert Means
Their status granted them access to isolated sanatoriums in the countryside where food and safety were guaranteed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
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
Located in the Carpathian foothills, Morshyn's economy is dependent on tourists visiting its hotels and sanatoriums and was hit badly by the first wave of lockdowns last year, Mayor Ruslan Ilnytsky told Reuters.
From Reuters ● Nov. 3, 2021
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
I had one patient whose life had been a continuous round of sanatoriums.
From Habits that Handicap The Menace of Opium, Alcohol, and Tobacco, and the Remedy by Towns, Charles B.
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.
