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general medicine

general medicine

1 3.4
Health care that finds and treats adults' diseases of the organs inside the body without surgery
  • noun
  • /ˈdʒɛnərəl ˈmɛdɪsɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : medicina general
  • In my residency, I gained experience in general medicine, focusing on internal diseases common in adults.
  • practicing general medicine
  • chief of general medicine

Examples

  • More often than not, however, when we speak of a medical clinic, we are most likely referring to a general medical practice that is run by one or several practitioners of general medicine.

    Blog text (2)
  • Why do some doctors stay in general medicine?

    Academic text (2007)
  • By comparison, emergency medicine was up 33%, and ophthalmology and general medicine were also both up 17%.

    Academic text (2014)
  • The program developed from research findings that the two groups most likely to practice family medicine in a rural area are physicians who grew up in rural areas and those who choose to practice family or general medicine.

    Academic text (1997)
  • In general medicine, two trials appeared in The Lancet, but they had British co-authors and were thus mixed-nationality.

    Academic text (1996)
  • He had told Alice Bogard he was hoping to do some general medicine before he died of asthma.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Rendu wrote over 100 articles in general medicine, was a contributor to the Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences Médicales, and actively participated in the Academy of Paris, of which he was general secretary.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The hospital's general medicine department treats a variety of conditions, from infections to chronic illnesses.

  • After finishing my studies in general medicine, I decided to specialize in treating heart diseases.

Synonyms

internal medicine
vsgeneral medicine
  • Specialized
10 3.2

A branch of medicine that finds and treats diseases of adults' internal organs without surgery

is the everyday or general name for the same medical specialty

How Specialized

pediatric medicine
  • Specialized
1 3.6
pediatric care
  • Specialized
1 3.4
family medicine
  • Specialized
3 3.1
general medicine
  • Specialized
1 3.4

Surface Forms

Morphology

general + medicine

The phrase combines 'general' (broad, non-specialized) with 'medicine' (the medical field), so its meaning as the non‑specialist branch of medicine is directly derivable from the constituents. This simple adjective + noun composition is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English patterns, making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

General medicine comes from the idea that general means 'broad' and medicine means care for illness. So general medicine is the part of medicine where doctors treat a wide range of common adult health problems rather than one part of the body or by doing surgery.