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:
This take on Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet,” set in a sanatorium with teenagers climbing the walls, has Bourne’s signature clever movement, which can be delightful, and tons of talent onstage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2024
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
This was because they had arrived from a sanatorium used to recuperate respiratory patients.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2022
She has lived in the town for 33 years, working in a sanatorium.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2022
After graduation she accepts a position, at the urging of her father’s friends, as a nurse in a TB sanatorium in Switzerland.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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
This does not include the insane in various private sanatoria, and moreover a considerable greater number of patients had been treated in these public institutions than were resident there June twentieth.
From Being Well-Born An Introduction to Eugenics by Guyer, Michael F.
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
“The hygienic focus of sanatoriums influenced the architecture of many building types,” she writes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2019
And a good part of that time, you know, I spent in hospitals and sanatoriums, and traveling around with trained nurses and three or four relatives to wait on me and humor my whims.
From Torchy, Private Sec. by Lincoln, F. Foster
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.
