treatment
Americannoun
-
treatments
plural
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an act or manner of treating.
- Synonyms:
- approach, conduct, management, handling
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action or behavior toward a person, animal, etc.
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management in the application of medicines, surgery, etc.
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literary or artistic handling, especially with reference to style.
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subjection to some agent or action.
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Movies, Television. a preliminary outline of a film or teleplay laying out the key scenes, characters, and locales.
noun
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the application of medicines, surgery, psychotherapy, etc, to a patient or to a disease or symptom
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the manner of handling or dealing with a person or thing, as in a literary or artistic work
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the act, practice, or manner of treating
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films an expansion of a script into sequence form, indicating camera angles, dialogue, etc
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slang the usual manner of dealing with a particular type of person (esp in the phrase give someone the ( full ) treatment )
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of treatment
Explanation
Treatment has to do with how someone or something is managed or handled. Hopefully you get the royal treatment when you choose the deluxe pedicure treatment! You know how some people treat you with respect but others don't treat you so nicely? You can refer to how people act toward you as treatment. If a restaurant is known for rude treatment of customers, people will stop going there. Doctors also use the word treatment when they discuss a particular medical course of action — such as chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer. The root word is the Latin tractare, which originally meant "drag about," but came to mean "manage, handle, or deal with."
Vocabulary lists containing treatment
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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"Water at Work"
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Lessons 4–5
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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.
See Examples For:
The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug from Revolution Medicines on Wednesday marks a milestone in treatment of one of the most intractable kinds of tumors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
The researchers found that curcumin treatment appeared to reduce inflammation and restore more normal calcium activity in blood vessels.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
The CycleTrack study hopes to improve understanding of heavy menstrual bleeding and related conditions such as endometriosis and fibroids, helping speed up diagnosis and treatment for millions of women.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
He was referred to a chiropractor, but the treatment did not improve his condition.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
This was the correct treatment, he said, for someone who suffered from chikanditua, or a stroke.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Wall Street expects Rasonque, which was approved for use in patients for whom other treatments failed, to be a big seller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Driven by the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus -- for which there are no vaccines or treatments -- the outbreak is the biggest in the DRC's history.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
The joiner says he tried all the available treatments for his condition, with none working and therefore prompting him to try a trial.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
And some of the hardest tumors, such as pancreatic cancer, are notoriously resistant to immune-based treatments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
“The treatments are making her better,” he said.
From "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness
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.
