treatment
Americannoun
-
treatments
plural
-
an act or manner of treating.
- Synonyms:
- approach, conduct, management, handling
-
action or behavior toward a person, animal, etc.
-
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 White House had alleged "discriminatory treatment" by Canada against US alcohol, automobile and dairy products in introducing the duties.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
The improvement was observed after 4, 6, and 8 weeks of treatment.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
So far, Bancel has said if the vaccine is approved, it would be priced less than CAR-T therapies, a bespoke cancer treatment that can run up to $500,000 for a single patient.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain and United Nations senior Ebola coordinator Julien Harneis said Friday that the eruption is "growing exponentially".
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Or why loved ones got sick, and stayed sick even with treatment.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Researchers are therefore looking for safe, widely available approaches that could help restore immune function and potentially work alongside existing cancer treatments.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
The Ervebo vaccine does help protect against the Zaïre species of Ebola but currently there are no proven vaccines or treatments for Bundibugyo.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Among the major causes for rising costs are cancer treatments and the popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Combining the bacterial therapy with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or anti-PD-L1 immunotherapy led to better tumor control and longer survival than the individual treatments achieved on their own.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
"But now I think I'll like these treatments more, because I can have them done with you."
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
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.
