Dosage

How to spell dosage

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dosage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dosage mean?

1. nounThe size or frequency of a dose of medicine or another substance taken at one time or over a period.

Dosage in a sentence

• The pharmacist printed the recommended dosage on the label.

• The doctor reduced his dosage after the first week of treatment.

Where does dosage come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word builds on 'dose', which English took in the early 1600s from French 'dose', itself drawn from the Late Latin 'dosis' and ultimately the Greek 'dosis', meaning literally 'a giving' or 'a portion handed over', from the verb 'didonai', 'to give'. The original Greek sense was simply the quantity of medicine given at one time, a portion measured out for the patient. To this English base the French-derived suffix '-age' was added, the same ending seen in 'storage' and 'mileage', which forms nouns expressing an amount or a collective measure. 'Dosage' therefore came to mean the regulated amount or scheme of doses rather than a single dose. The spelling keeps the soft 'g' of '-age' after the silent 'e' of 'dose' is dropped, which is the small trap: it is 'dosage', not 'dosege' or 'doseage'.

How the word is built

• dos- (from dose, a measured amount)
• -age (noun suffix meaning amount or process)