Remedial

How to spell remedial

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce remedial

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does remedial mean?

1. adjectiveIntended to correct or improve a deficiency, fault, or weakness, especially in skills or conditions.

Remedial in a sentence

• The college offers remedial classes for students who struggle with basic maths.

• The council ordered remedial work on the damaged bridge before it could reopen.

Where does remedial come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin remedialis, meaning 'healing' or 'curative', which was formed from remedium, a remedy or cure. Remedium itself combines the prefix re-, here adding a sense of 'again' or 'back', with the verb mederi, meaning 'to heal' or 'to treat'. That same healing root sits inside the everyday words 'medicine', 'medical', and 'remedy', all of which share the idea of putting something right. English took remedial into use in the 1600s, at first in the literal medical sense of something that cures, and only later extended it to mean correcting a fault or making up a shortfall, as in remedial lessons. A useful spelling cue is that it keeps the single m and single d of 'remedy' and simply swaps the final -y for -ial.

How the word is built

• remedi- (from Latin remedium: a cure, remedy)
• -al (adjective suffix)