medical

See also: médical

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French médical, from Medieval Latin medicālis, from Latin medicus. Replaced Old English lǣċe (“doctor (physician)”), which is cognate with Icelandic læknir (“doctor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛdɪkl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: med‧i‧cal

Adjective

medical (not generally comparable, comparative more medical, superlative most medical)

1. Of or pertaining to the practice of medicine.

   medical doctor; medical student

   Do you have any medical experience?

   • 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:

     The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.

2. Intended to have a therapeutic effect; medicinal.

   medical marijuana; medical cannabis; medical treatment

3. Requiring medical treatment.

   A costly medical condition can bankrupt you if it doesn't kill you first.

4. Pertaining to the state of one's health.

   medical examinaton; medical exemption; medical history; medical record; medical diagnosis

6. Pertaining to or requiring treatment by other than surgical means.

   Synonyms: nonsurgical, nonoperative

   Antonyms: surgical, operative

   medical ward

8. Pertaining to medication specifically (that is, pharmacotherapy), rather than to other aspects of medicine and surgery.

   medical oncology, radiation oncology, and surgical oncology

   surgical therapy only when medical therapy fails

Synonyms

• (medicinal): curative, therapeutic

Derived terms

• aeromedical
• anatomicomedical
• antimedical
• biomedical
• chronomedical
• durable medical equipment
• electromedical
• emergency medical service
• emergency medical technician
• ethnomedical
• extramedical
• geomedical
• iatromedical
• med-evac
• Medicaid
• medical alert jewelry
• medical cannabis
• medical center
• medical certificate
• medical condition
• medical desert
• medical doctor
• medicalese
• medical ethics
• medical examiner
• medical finger
• medical glove
• medical Greek
• medical history
• medical informatics
• medicalisation
• medicalise
• medical isotope
• medicalization
• medicalize
• medical journal
• medical jurisprudence
• medically
• medical marijuana
• medical out
• medical practitioner
• medical record
• medical report
• medical school
• medical student
• medical students' disease
• medical tourism
• Medicare
• medicide
• medispa
• medscanner
• nanomedical
• neuromedical
• nonmedical
• non-medical
• paramedical
• photomedical
• physicomedical
• physiomedical
• phytomedical
• premedical
• pseudomedical
• psychomedical
• quasimedical
• sociobiomedical
• sociomedical
• sportsmedical
• telemedical
• transmedicalism
• transmedicalist
• unmedical
• zoomedical

 

Related terms

• medicational

Translations

of the practice of medicine

• Albanian: mjekësor (sq)
• Arabic: طِبِّيّ (ṭibbiyy)
• Azerbaijani: tibbi (az)
• Bulgarian: медици́нски (medicínski)
• Catalan: mèdic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 醫／医 (zh) (yī), 藥／药 (zh) (yào)

• Czech: lékařský (cs)
• Danish: medicinsk
• Dutch: medisch (nl)
• Esperanto: medicina (eo)
• Finnish: lääketieteellinen (fi), lääkäri-, lääketieteen (fi), lääketiede-, lääkehoito-, lääkinnällinen (fi)
• French: médical (fr)
• Galician: médico (gl)
• Georgian: სამედიცინო (samedicino), საექიმო (saekimo)
• German: medizinisch (de), ärztlich (de)
• Greek: ιατρικός (el) (iatrikós)

  Ancient Greek: ἰατρικός (iatrikós)

• Hebrew: רפואי \ רְפוּאִי (he) (refuí)
• Icelandic: læknisfræðilegur (is)
• Indonesian: medis (id)
• Italian: medico (it)
• Kazakh: медициналық (medisinalyq)
• Latvian: medicīnisks
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: medisinsk

  Nynorsk: medisinsk

• Ottoman Turkish: طبی (tıbbî)
• Persian: طبی (fa) (tebbi)
• Polish: medyczny (pl), lekarski (pl)
• Portuguese: médico (pt)
• Russian: медици́нский (ru) (medicínskij), враче́бный (ru) (vračébnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: lèigh, meadaigeach
• Serbo-Croatian: medicinski (sh)
• Slovak: lekársky (sk)
• Slovene: medicínski
• Spanish: médico (es)
• Swedish: medicinsk (sv)
• Tajik: тиббӣ (tibbi)
• Turkish: tıbbi (tr)
• Ukrainian: меди́чний (uk) (medýčnyj), лі́карський (líkarsʹkyj)
• Urdu: طِبّی (tibbī)
• Uyghur: تىببىي (tibbiy)
• Uzbek: tibbiy (uz)

medicinal

• Finnish: lääke-, lääkinnällinen (fi)

requiring medical treatment

• Finnish: sairas-

pertaining to health

• Finnish: lääkärin (fi), terveys-

Noun

medical (plural medicals)

1. (informal) A medical examination.

   You'll have to get a medical before you apply for that job.

   • 2014 August 26, Jamie Jackson, “Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real”, in The Guardian:

     After completing a medical and the requisite paperwork on Tuesday to seal the deal, Di María said: “I am absolutely delighted to be joining Manchester United. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Spain and there were a lot of clubs interested in me, but United is the only club that I would have left Real Madrid for.

   • 2021 November 17, “Network News: Age-related medical requirements”, in RAIL, number 944, page 9:

     All UK train drivers must undergo a medical every three years up to the age of 54, and annually from then on.

2. (archaic) A medical practitioner.
   • 1884, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Body Snatcher:

     We medicals have a better way than that. When we dislike a friend of ours, we dissect him.

   • 1905, Edward Harper Parker, “Confucianism”, in China and Religion, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton and Company, pages 67–68:

     There was the school of simplicity, socialism, and universal love, the head of which was a Quixotic Diogenes called Mêh-tsz or Meccius (fifth century b.c.); the school of denominationalists, or pedantic adherents to the letter of absolutely defined principles; the legists, or partisans of a system of repression and punishment (on the Plehve-Pobyedonóschtschoff basis); the astrologists, or believers in occult influences; the medicals or elixirists; the sensualists; and many others, recalling to our minds the various divisions of Greek philosophy at the same period.

Related terms

• medicate
• medicine

Anagrams

• camelid, claimed, decimal, declaim, maliced

Interlingua

Adjective

medical (not comparable)

1. medical (pertaining to medicine, health care, etc.)

Middle French

Etymology

From Latin medicālis, from medius (“middle”).

Adjective

medical m

1. Of or relating to the middle finger.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French médical.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

medical m or n (feminine singular medicală, masculine plural medicali, feminine and neuter plural medicale)

1. medical

Declension

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	medical		medicală		medicali	medicale
	definite	medicalul		medicala		medicalii	medicalele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	medical		medicale		medicali	medicale
	definite	medicalului		medicalei		medicalilor	medicalelor