Treatment

How to spell treatment

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce treatment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does treatment mean?

1. nounThe way a person or thing is dealt with or behaved towards.
2. nounMedical care given to cure an illness or injury.
3. nounA process or substance applied to clean, protect, or alter something.

Treatment in a sentence

• The staff complained about their unfair treatment by the new manager.

• The doctor recommended a course of treatment lasting six weeks.

• The timber needs a weatherproof treatment before it goes outdoors.

• The documentary gave the subject a balanced and respectful treatment.

• Early treatment greatly improves the chances of recovery.

• The water undergoes a chemical treatment to remove impurities.

Where does treatment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word grew from the verb 'treat', which English borrowed in the 1300s from the Old French 'traitier', meaning 'to deal with' or 'to handle'. That French verb traces back to the Latin 'tractare', literally 'to drag about' or 'to handle', a frequentative of 'trahere', 'to pull or draw'. The same 'trahere' root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'tractor', 'attract' and 'extract', all of which carry a sense of pulling or drawing. The noun 'treatment' was formed in English by adding the French-derived suffix '-ment', which turns a verb into a noun for the action or its result, and it appears from the 1500s meaning 'the manner of dealing with a person or thing'. The medical sense, the care given to cure an illness, developed somewhat later. The spelling is regular once you remember it is simply 'treat' plus '-ment', with the final 't' of the verb kept intact.

How the word is built

• treat (from Latin tractare: to handle, manage)
• -ment (noun suffix indicating an action or its result)