therapeutic
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
-
of or relating to the treatment of disease; curative
-
serving or performed to maintain health
therapeutic abortion
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of therapeutic
1535–45; < New Latin therapeuticus < Greek therapeutikós, equivalent to therapeú ( ein ) to attend, treat medically (akin to therápōn attendant) + -tikos -tic
Explanation
Whether you’re talking about a therapeutic drug or a therapeutic exercise plan, something that is therapeutic helps to heal or to restore health. The adjective therapeutic can be traced all the way back to the Greek word therapeutikos (from therapeuein, meaning “to attend” or “to treat”). Although the word relates to healing or soothing, therapeutic isn’t reserved only for drugs or medical treatments. You’ve probably heard particular activities referred to as therapeutic, which just means that doing that activity makes you feel rejuvenated. You might consider shopping for shoes, for example, to be a therapeutic activity — at least until the credit card bill arrives.
Vocabulary lists containing therapeutic
This Week in Words: March 3 – 9, 2018
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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.
Ruud Dobber, executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceuticals business, said the approval brings a new treatment to a disease that has had little therapeutic progress for the past two decades.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
She believes memory activities or writing letters to loved-ones helps, adding: "They'll never see it but it's therapeutic."
From BBC • May 16, 2026
The work could lead to a more efficient and environmentally friendly approach for discovering serotonin-targeting drugs that provide some of the therapeutic effects linked to psychedelics without dramatically altering perception.
From Science Daily • May 14, 2026
Then, another option is the Eastside, where Michelle is from and where the family moved to in 2020, at the suggestion of a sister-in-law, for Kevin’s enhanced therapeutic services.
From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026
For many black people in the region, watching the evidence that we had presented in court now laid out on national television was therapeutic.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
