Remedies

How to spell remedies

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce remedies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does remedies mean?

1. nounTreatments, cures, or solutions that put right a problem or illness.
2. verbPuts right or corrects a fault or undesirable situation.

Remedies in a sentence

• noun

  The pharmacist recommended several over-the-counter remedies for a sore throat.

• verb

  A quick software update remedies the security flaw on every device.

• noun

  The report listed practical remedies for the company's cash-flow problems.

• verb

  The new manager remedies years of poor record-keeping within months.

Where does remedies come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin remedium, meaning 'a cure' or 'a means of healing', which was built from the prefix re-, here adding the sense of 'again' or 'back', and the verb mederi, meaning 'to heal' or 'to look after'. The same mederi root sits behind familiar relatives such as 'medicine', 'medical', and 'remedial', all of which circle around the idea of restoring health. English took the word in through Old French remedie during the 1200s, at first strictly in the medical sense of a treatment for illness, before the meaning broadened to cover any solution that puts a wrong situation right, including legal and practical fixes. The plural and verb form 'remedies' follows the regular English rule that a word ending in a consonant plus -y changes the y to -ies, which is exactly the spot where writers hesitate. Keeping the 'med' (heal) core in mind helps anchor both the spelling and the meaning.

How the word is built

• re- (again, back)
• med (from Latin mederi: to heal)
• -y (noun)
• -es (plural/third-person ending)