Practitioner

How to spell practitioner

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce practitioner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does practitioner mean?

1. nounA person actively engaged in a profession, skill, or discipline, especially in medicine or law.

Practitioner in a sentence

• The clinic hired a nurse practitioner to handle routine appointments.

• Every legal practitioner in the firm must complete annual training.

Where does practitioner come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek praktikos, meaning 'fit for doing' or 'concerned with action', which itself grew from the verb prassein, 'to do or to act'. This passed into Latin as practicus and then into Old French as practique, alongside the agent noun practicien for someone who carries out a craft or profession. English borrowed that as 'practician' in the 1400s, but by the 1530s writers had clumsily extended it by tacking the familiar English agent suffix -er onto the end, producing the doubled and slightly redundant 'practitioner'. That awkward history is exactly why the spelling traps people: there is a -tion- buried in the middle followed by -er, so the word looks as if it should be 'practioner' or 'practitionar' when sounded out. Keeping the full 'practition' before the 'er' is the safest way to remember it.

How the word is built

• practition- (from practician, one who practises, ultimately Greek praktikos: fit for action)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)