Docs

How to spell docs

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce docs

What does docs mean?

1. nounAn informal plural term for written or digital documents, especially files and instructions stored on a computer.
2. nounAn informal plural term for doctors or physicians.

Docs in a sentence

• All the project docs are saved in the shared folder.

• The hospital docs worked through the night during the emergency.

• The developer updated the docs to explain the new feature.

• Two docs examined the patient before agreeing on a diagnosis.

Where does docs come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the plural of the informal clipping 'doc', and both of its common meanings trace back to the same Latin verb docere, meaning 'to teach'. From docere came documentum, originally a 'lesson' or an instructive example, which softened over the centuries into the sense of a written record that informs or proves something; that gave English 'document', shortened in casual and technical use to 'doc'. The other branch, 'doctor', came from the Latin doctor meaning 'teacher', literally 'one who instructs', which is why a learned authority and a physician share the title. English adopted 'document' through Old French in the 1400s and 'doctor' even earlier, while the snappy clipped form 'doc' is a much more recent, conversational development. Because both parents grow from the teaching root docere, 'docs' sits in a small family that includes 'docile' and 'doctrine'. The spelling stays simple: just keep the hard 'c' before adding the plural 's', with no silent letters to trip over.

How the word is built

• doc (clipping of 'document' or 'doctor')
• -s (plural suffix)