medicine

Alternative forms

• medicin (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ˈmed-sǐn, ˈmed-sn, IPA: /ˈmɛd.ɪ.s(ɪ)n/, /ˈmɛd.s(ɪ)n/
• (General American) enPR: medʹĭ-sĭn, IPA: /ˈmɛd.ɪ.sɪn/
• (Weak-vowel merger) IPA: /ˈmɛdəs(ə)n/
• Hyphenation: me‧di‧cine

Noun

medicine (countable and uncountable, plural medicines)

1. (uncountable, countable) A substance which specifically promotes healing when ingested or consumed in some way; a pharmaceutical drug.
   • This medicine has fewer adverse effects than others in its drug class.
   • Using a weekly pill organizer is a good way to help remind yourself to take your medicine each day, and it also tells you whether you already took today's pills (it's not unusual to forget doing a habitual task)!
   • Synonym: medication
   • Hypernym: drug
2. (broadly, countable) Any treatment or cure.
   • A legislative remedy might be some harsh medicine; is that cure worse than the ill?
3. (uncountable) The study of the cause, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease or illness.
   • She's studying medicine at university because she wants to be a doctor in the future.
4. (uncountable) The profession and practice of physicians, including surgeons.
   • The history of medicine can be discretized into eras with differing relationships between physicians and surgeons
   • Hypernyms: health care, healthcare
   • Hyponym: surgery
   1. (mainly historical, uncountable) The profession and practice of nonsurgical physicians as sometimes distinguished from that of surgeons.
      • the evolving relationship of medicine to surgery in the nineteenth century
      • Coordinate term: surgery
5. (uncountable) Ritual magic used, as by a medicine man, to promote a desired outcome in healing, hunting, or warfare; traditional medicine.
6. Among the Native Americans, any object supposed to give control over natural or magical forces, to act as a protective charm, or to cause healing.
7. (obsolete) Black magic, superstition.
8. (obsolete) A philter or love potion.
9. (obsolete) A physician.
10. (slang) Recreational drugs, especially alcoholic drinks.

Verb

medicine (third-person singular simple present medicines, present participle medicining, simple past and past participle medicined)

1. (rare, obsolete) To treat with medicine.

Noun

medicine f

1. plural of medicina

Anagrams

• endemici

Noun

medicine f (plural medicines)

1. medicine (act of practising medical treatment)

Verb

medicine

1. inflection of medicinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative