Hippocrates

American  

[hi-pok-ruh-teez] / hɪˈpɒk rəˌtiz /

noun

1. Father of Medicine, c460–c377 b.c., Greek physician.

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Hippocrates British  

/ hɪˈpɒkrəˌtiːz /

noun

1. ?460–?377 _bc , Greek physician, commonly regarded as the father of medicine

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Hippocrates Scientific  

/ hĭ-pŏk′rə-tēz′ /

1. Greek physician who is credited with establishing the foundations of scientific medicine. He and his followers worked to distinguish medicine from superstition and magic beliefs by basing their treatment of illness on close observation and rational deduction.

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Hippocrates Cultural  

1. An ancient Greek physician (the “father of medicine”) who is credited with founding the study of medicine.

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Other Word Forms

• Hippocratic adjective
• Hippocratical adjective

Example Sentences

The Greek medical tradition, starting with Hippocrates, tried to make sickness a secular matter.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

Finch and co-author Stanley Burstein, a historian at California State University, Los Angeles, pored over a major body of ancient medical writing by Hippocrates and his followers.

From Science Daily • Jan. 31, 2024

If, like Hippocrates, we consider food and drugs as serving the same function, we can incorporate concepts of medicine into our eating habits.

From Salon • Jan. 31, 2024

Hippocrates even wrote about castoreum’s healing properties of castoreum in 500 B.C.

From National Geographic • Nov. 15, 2023

About the same time, on the nearby island of Cos, Hippocrates was establishing his famous medical tradition, now barely remembered because of the Hippocratic oath.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan