Therapeutic

How to spell therapeutic

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce therapeutic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does therapeutic mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a healing, restorative, or calming effect on the body or mind.

Therapeutic in a sentence

• The warm bath had a deeply therapeutic effect after a long shift.

• Many people find that gardening is surprisingly therapeutic.

Where does therapeutic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek therapeutikos, meaning 'inclined to tend or cure', which grew from the verb therapeuein, 'to attend to, to wait on, to treat medically'. At its root lies therapon, a word for an attendant or servant, so the earliest idea was less about medicine and more about caring for and ministering to someone. The related noun therapeia gave English 'therapy' directly, and the two words share the same Greek backbone. English picked up 'therapeutic' in the early seventeenth century, largely through medical Latin and French, to describe anything that heals or relieves. The spelling trap is buried in the middle: the Greek -eu- cluster survives intact as 'peu', and the 'th' at the front reflects the Greek theta, a reliable clue that the word is classical rather than native.

How the word is built

• therapeut- (from Greek therapeutes: an attendant or healer)
• -ic (adjective suffix)