Showing results for heal. Search instead for to heal.

Synonyms

heal

American

[heel] / hil /

verb (used with object)

to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from ailment.

Antonyms:

irritate
to bring to an end or conclusion, as conflicts between people or groups, usually with the strong implication of restoring former amity; settle; reconcile.

They tried to heal the rift between them but were unsuccessful.

Synonyms:

soothe, compose

Antonyms:

irritate
to free from evil; cleanse; purify.

to heal the soul.

Synonyms:

disinfect, purge

Antonyms:

infect, soil

verb (used without object)

to effect a cure.
(of a wound, broken bone, etc.) to become whole or sound; mend; get well (often followed by up orover ).

noun

(in a video game) a category of spell that restores the health of a player character.

I thought the party was gonna wipe, but a clutch heal saved our Monk and he finished off the boss alone.

heal British

/ hiːl /

verb

to restore or be restored to health
(intr; often foll by over or up) (of a wound, burn, etc) to repair by natural processes, as by scar formation
(tr)
1. to treat (a wound, etc) by assisting in its natural repair
2. to cure (a disease or disorder)
to restore or be restored to friendly relations, harmony, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See cure.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of heal

First recorded before 900; Middle English helen, Old English hǣlan (cognate with Dutch helen, German heilen, Old Norse heila, Gothic hailjan ), derivative of hāl hale ¹, whole

Explanation

To heal is to recover or become healthy again. You'll need to wait until your blisters heal before you put your hiking boots back on and climb Mt. Everest. They say time can heal, or cure, a broken heart, while you can be sure that rest, an ice pack, and propping your foot up will heal your twisted ankle. The Proto-Germanic word khailaz, which means "to make whole" is the root of both heal and the closely related word health. Don't confuse heal with heel, which is the back part of your foot or the command that makes a dog stop.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

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:

heal heals healed healing

The combination of reservoirs and desalination plants can heal the Southwest of perpetual drought, and California will probably be able to sell excess water to Arizona, Nevada and Northern Mexico.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

In 2016 Clare experienced a tear which did not heal.

From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026

Fibronectin performs essential functions throughout the body, including supporting tissue structure and helping damaged tissues heal.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

And breakouts can leave behind dark marks and scars that take even longer to heal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

“You can’t heal from something like that, Uncle. You just can’t. Never.”

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

If I could boil my formula for the future of dementia care into two words, it would be this: Hope heals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026

From there, activists could demand almost whatever they want: action on climate change, an end to mass surveillance and ICE raids, or an equitable health system that heals instead of mangles.

From Salon ● Dec. 11, 2025

In 1986, an article in the New Journal of Medicine by Dr. Harold Dvorak suggested that cancer behaves very much like a wound that never heals.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 10, 2025

"I don't want to put any ceilings on Jac, we've got a good medical team here and everybody heals at a different rate," Jones said.

From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2025

This answer doesn’t match with the other facts he knows about Dr. Martin: that she’s a birder, that she heals injured animals, that she returns birds to the sky, to their families.

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers

At the Shrine, though, each song was still a startling feat of storytelling — a raw wound that somehow hadn’t healed at all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

When his elbow healed, he dominated at the plate and on the mound in ways not even Babe Ruth could have imagined.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

Among untreated aged mice, only 56% had fully healed by the same point.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

He had said it was how he had healed his PTSD.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

All it took was a fire, nearly dying, and being rescued by humans and healed in a box to make me feel it: a desire to play that smothers everything else.

From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz

Your church must have brought a great sense of community and spiritual healing to that parishioner to give such a generous gift.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026

"I hope the victim and her family can sort of get over it as soon as possible in terms of healing and move on," he said.

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

“Being able to share some of the healing parts of our story, I think, is kind of our responsibility,” Laura Lentz says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

For now, faster wound healing and coordinated stem cell behavior were demonstrated in mice.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

The bandage sticks to my arm as I peel it off, the wound healing into the cloth itself.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

Get a word

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023