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• cure
  cure

  noun

  a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.
• curé
  curé

  noun

  (in France) a parish priest.

cure

¹ American  

[kyoor] / kjʊər /

noun

• cures
  plural

1. a means of healing or restoring to health; remedy.

2. a method or course of remedial treatment, as for disease.

   Synonyms:

   antidote, specific, restorative, remedy

3. successful remedial treatment; restoration to health.

4. a means of correcting or relieving anything that is troublesome or detrimental.

   The administration is seeking a cure for inflation.

5. the act or a method of preserving meat, fish, etc., by smoking, salting, or the like.

6. spiritual or religious charge of the people in a certain district.

7. the office or district of a curate or parish priest.

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verb (used with object)

• cures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cured,
  past participle,  past
• curing
  present participle

1. to restore to health.

2. to relieve or rid of something detrimental, such as an illness or a bad habit.

3. to correct (a document, especially a mail-in ballot) in order to make it valid.

   If the voter’s signature is missing, the county board sends them a certification form allowing the voter to cure the ballot so it can be counted.

4. to prepare (meat, fish, etc.) for preservation by salting, drying, etc.

5. to promote hardening of (fresh concrete or mortar), as by keeping it damp.

6. to process (rubber, tobacco, etc.) as by fermentation or aging.

verb (used without object)

• cures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cured,
  past participle,  past
• curing
  present participle

1. to effect a cure.

2. to become cured.

curé ² American  

[kyoo-rey, kyoor-ey, ky-rey] / kjʊˈreɪ, ˈkjʊər eɪ, küˈreɪ /

noun

• curés
  plural

1. (in France) a parish priest.

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cure ¹ British  

/ kjʊə /

verb

1. (tr) to get rid of (an ailment, fault, or problem); heal

2. (tr) to restore to health or good condition

3. (intr) to bring about a cure

4. (tr) to preserve (meat, fish, etc) by salting, smoking, etc

5. (tr)

   1. to treat or finish (a substance) by chemical or physical means

   2. to vulcanize (rubber)

   3. to allow (a polymer) to set often using heat or pressure

6. (tr) to assist the hardening of (concrete, mortar, etc) by keeping it moist

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noun

1. a return to health, esp after specific treatment

2. any course of medical therapy, esp one proved effective in combating a disease

3. a means of restoring health or improving a condition, situation, etc

4. the spiritual and pastoral charge of a parish

   the cure of souls

5. a process or method of preserving meat, fish, etc, by salting, pickling, or smoking

curé ² British  

/ ˈkjʊəreɪ /

noun

1. a parish priest in France

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cure Idioms  

1. see kill or cure; ounce of prevention (is worth a pound of cure); sure cure.

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Synonym Usage

Cure, heal, remedy imply making well, whole, or right. Cure is applied to the eradication of disease or sickness: to cure a headache. Heal suggests the making whole of wounds, sores, etc.: to heal a burn. Remedy applies especially to making wrongs right: to remedy a mistake.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• curer
  noun
• cureless
  adjective
• half-cured
  adjective
• overcured
  adjective
• semicured
  adjective
• uncured
  adjective
• well-cured
  adjective
• curelessly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cures
  plural
• curés
  plural

Participles

• curing
  present
• cured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• cure
  simple
• cures
  simple
• have cured
  perfect
• has cured
  perfect
• am curing
  progressive
• are curing
  progressive
• is curing
  progressive
• have been curing
  perfect progressive
• has been curing
  perfect progressive

Past

• cured
  simple
• had cured
  perfect
• was curing
  progressive
• were curing
  progressive
• had been curing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will cure
  simple
• will have cured
  perfect
• will be curing
  progressive
• will have been curing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of cure¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, Old French noun cure, from Latin cūra “care”; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of curé²

1645–55; < French, Old French; modeled on Medieval Latin cūrātus parish priest; see curate

Explanation

A cure is a treatment that ends an illness or makes you feel better. There is no cure for the common cold, or for a broken heart. Waaaaa. Many researchers focus on finding cures for diseases like cancer and diabetes — while it is possible to recover from incurable illnesses, it's not possible to cure them. You could also say, "This Florida winter is going to cure me of missing Minnesota!" When someone cures meat or fish, they smoke or salt it to preserve it. The Latin root is curare, "take care of."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cure curé cures curés cured curing

Regeneron’s gene therapy to cure a rare form of deafness treats so few children that the company decided to make the treatment free.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

"The data is super clear - prevention is preferable to cure."

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026

The change "will allow me to focus on long-term strategy, and accelerating scientific breakthroughs, including leaning into my work at Isomorphic to help cure disease," Hassabis wrote in a social media post.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

It was not as though the open air of a farmers market was going to cure my base shopping instincts.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

To cure unemployment, Hitler looked to Germany’s millions of young people.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Thus encouraged Gerard fired the eyes and nostrils of the image and made the curé jump.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

By'r Lady," shouted the curé, "'tis strange, and small my wonder that they took you for a magician, seeing a dead face thus fired.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

And the curé pointed at Mangis with his staff.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

The curé speedily closed out the light with a wooden shutter.

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

"The young people give me a crown, and I undo my work handsomely; tell the curé I was misinformed; and all goes smoothly."

From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Charles Reade

Now we must make sure cures reach patients.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

It’s not a silver bullet that cures polarization, settles complicated policy debates or ensures that everyone gets along.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026

"All she had read online was that it cures cancer."

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Essentially, the man appears to be opting out of the medical establishment altogether, while using his own girlfriend and his “clone baby” as experimental proving grounds for self-starter cures involving lots of peptides.

From Slate ● Jul. 31, 2026

Of course they were growing and surviving decades after her death, of course they floated through the air, and of course they’d led to cures for diseases and been launched into space.

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

In the case of the French curés, the crucial story was that of Christ’s life and death as told by the Catholic Church.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Meanwhile, the letters in which Turgot explained his views and wishes to the curés, by them to be imparted to their parishes, are masterpieces of the care, the patience, the interest, of a good ruler.

From Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 2 of 3) Turgot by John Morley

These volumes are rather dreary reading, it must be admitted, consisting chiefly of the record of the building or improvement of the church and of the coming and the going of the curés.

From A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861 by George McKinnon Wrong

These vaults of M. Duchâtel’s, in which a considerable stock of the fine wine of 1874 is stored, are from two to three centuries old, and probably belonged to the curés of St. Jacques.

From Facts About Champagne and Other Sparkling Wines by Henry Vizetelly

Talking of curés, I may mention that one came from a distance of several miles to pay his respects to us, and offer welcome to France.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 437 Volume 17, New Series, May 15, 1852 by William Chambers

For years, doctors treated patients suffering from severe, chronic hepatitis C with an expensive drug regimen that required six to 12 months of treatment, had nasty side effects and rarely cured the disease.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

Whatever they gave me there cured the pain.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

As a Kryptonian, her hangovers are instantly cured by a yellow sun.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

I order cured tuna two ways – mojama, salt-cured and firm like jamón, and atún ahumado, smoked, like lox but bolder.

From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026

And when the baby was cured of the snakebite, it’d still need convalescing.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

“So they don’t need to spend as much on curing illness; they spend a lot more on getting services in place to prevent illness,” he said.

From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026

In 2023, she became a patron of Brain Tumour Research - a charity dedicated to curing the disease.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

The foundation recommended ballot curing programs that speed up the process by utilizing a secure text platform when double checking whether a ballot is legitimate when a voter’s signature doesn’t match state records.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

But instead of ending capital punishment in the United States, the Furman decision set off a scramble in which states reenacted their death penalty laws in the hope of curing the problem Justice Douglas identified.

From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2026

“Maybe, maybe not. Or maybe I’d cause a flood and people would be killed. That’s the problem with big magic. I only do little magic. Good cooking, my curing soup, my Tonic.”

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Related Words

• minister