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Glite Dictionary
📄 A recommendation 🧑‍⚕️ A sent person 🎁 A reward system
referral

referral

30 5.3
A person sent to a specialist for advice or treatment
  • noun
  • /rɪˈfɜrəl/
translation icon : referido
  • The clinic offers quick referrals to therapists for patients experiencing mental health issues.
  • special education referral
  • education referral
  • clinician referral

And we've heard anecdotally from my ENT colleagues that they have seen an increase in referrals with tinnitus following COVID.

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Examples

  • The Prime Minister set a target that urgent cancer referrals should receive their first treatment within two months.

  • That same report found that waiting times for cancer patients after referral by their GP were the worst on record.

  • If the probability is low, specialist referral for further investigation and treatment of other conditions is appropriate.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Every bed in the unit is full, and we got referrals waiting in the ER.

    Flatliners (2017)

  • The majority of the children given outside referrals also received classroom interventions.

    Academic text (2013)

  • I've also learned today that we picked up three new clients, all of whom came as referrals from your cases.

    Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)

  • Patients with new onset suspected heart failure following MI need urgent referral for specialist follow-up within 2 weeks.

    Academic text (2011)

  • I've got a ten o'clock appointment with a referral from DSS, Glenn.

    Return to Innocence (2001)

  • After my visit to the general practitioner, I received a referral to see a specialist for my knee injury.

  • She brought a referral from her primary care doctor to begin treatment for her condition.

Synonyms

consultee
vsreferral
7.4

A person who gives or receives advice in a meeting about something

is someone specifically sent to a specialist for consultation or treatment

How Official

referral
30 5.3
referral
52 4.4
recommendation
553 2.5

Surface Forms

referral singular
referrals plural

Morphology

referral = refer (transparent) = refer + al

The noun is formed from 'refer' with '-al'; the sense 'a person who has been sent' extends directly from the act of referring and is predictable for learners.

Etymology

The word referral comes from refer, made of re- 'back' and ferre 'to carry', and it shares the same root as transfer. So a referral can mean the person who is sent on to a specialist or service, because they have been 'referred' there.