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View synonyms for patient

patient

[ pey-shuhnt ]

noun

  1. a person who is under medical care or treatment.

    Synonyms: invalid

  2. a person or thing that undergoes some action.
  3. Archaic. a sufferer or victim.


adjective

  1. bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.

    Synonyms: uncomplaining, calm, passive, resigned, long-suffering

    Antonyms: hostile

  2. characterized by or expressing such a quality:

    a patient smile.

    Synonyms: unexcited, composed, self-possessed, unruffled, serene, quiet

    Antonyms: agitated, impatient

  3. quietly and steadily persevering or diligent, especially in detail or exactness:

    a patient worker.

    Synonyms: assiduous, sedulous

  4. undergoing the action of another ( agent ).

patient

/ ˈpeɪʃənt /

adjective

  1. enduring trying circumstances with even temper
  2. tolerant; understanding
  3. capable of accepting delay with equanimity
  4. persevering or diligent

    a patient worker

  5. archaic.
    admitting of a certain interpretation
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. a person who is receiving medical care
  2. rare.
    a person or thing that is the recipient of some action
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • ˈpatiently, adverb
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Other Words From

  • patient·less adjective
  • patient·ly adverb
  • patient·ness noun
  • over·patient adjective
  • quasi-patient adjective
  • quasi-patient·ly adverb
  • super·patient adjective
  • super·patient·ly adverb
  • un·patient adjective
  • un·patient·ly adverb
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Word History and Origins

Origin of patient1

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English adjective and noun pacient, from Middle French, from Latin patient-, stem of patiēns, present participle of patī “to undergo, suffer, bear”; -ent
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Word History and Origins

Origin of patient1

C14: see patience
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. patient of,
    1. having or showing the capacity for endurance:

      a man patient of distractions.

    2. susceptible of:

      This statement is patient of criticism.

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Example Sentences

For example, a patient may be allergic to an excipient in the newly refilled medicine with a different manufacturer.

Eleven health care providers — seven doctors, four nurses, a patient councillor and an endocrinologist — participated in the training.

An early look at 45 patients shows that people who did the nose rinses, either saline alone or saline with soap, got rid of their headaches and nose congestion about a week earlier than the people who didn’t use rinses.

Cardiac MRIs revealed signs of heart inflammation in 60 of these patients after their infection.

However, case-patients were more likely to have reported dining at a restaurant… in the 2 weeks before illness onset than were control-participants.

From Fortune

Doctors are prohibited from doing what a patient needs by rigid practice guidelines.

For the individual patient, there is the potential for side effects or adverse reactions.

This not only defrauds the state out of thousands of dollars, but also deprives the patient who needs the drugs.

Within days of the first symptom, a headache, the patient was fighting for his life.

No trained medical provider could possibly expect to nourish a patient this way.

“But this is not a case of attending a patient, Baron,” said David Arden, a little haughtily.

But Yung Pak had long before learned to be patient under such circumstances.

Surely, since he had been patient so long without hope, he could be still more patient now that hope had dawned!

He glanced up and saw the face of the Bruder watching him with a smile of patient indulgence.

He told how the Korean farmer lived a simple, patient life, while at the same time he was ignorant and superstitious.

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Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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patiencepatient zero