Medication

How to spell medication

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce medication

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does medication mean?

1. nounA drug or other substance used to treat or prevent illness.
2. nounThe act or process of treating a patient with a drug or remedy.

Medication in a sentence

• The pharmacist explained how often to take the new medication.

• The ward follows strict procedures during medication to avoid errors.

• He keeps his medication in a labelled box beside the bed.

• Careful medication of the elderly patient required precise timing.

Where does medication come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb medicari, meaning 'to heal' or 'to treat with medicine', which was built on medicus, 'a physician', and ultimately on the root mederi, meaning 'to look after' or 'to cure'. From this came the Latin noun medicatio, describing the act of healing or treating. English took the word in through Old French and Latin during the late Middle Ages, around the 1400s, originally referring to the process of treating a patient rather than the substance itself. Over time the meaning narrowed and shifted toward the actual drug or remedy that is administered. The same mederi root quietly sits inside familiar relatives such as medicine, medical, and remedy, which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the clear 'medic' stem before the smooth '-ation' ending.

How the word is built

• medic- (from Latin medicari, to heal)
• -ation (noun suffix denoting action or result)