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medicament

medicament

1 7.7
A medicine used to treat, prevent, or relieve symptoms of illness
  • noun
  • /ˈmɛdɪkəmənt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : medicamento
  • The doctor prescribed a medicament to help alleviate her symptoms of the disease.

He gave me a box full of medicaments, band aids, etcetera, and then I never used it.

Examples

  • Brys's neck was buried in scarves that were pungent with medicaments and herbs.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Ever the model of discretion, Gregory warns that sometimes one must be careful dosing out this medicine because "wounds are more inflamed by untimely incisions, and if medicaments do not suit the occasion, it is certain that they do not serve their purpose of healing."

    Academic text (2002)
  • Fortunately, all our medicaments are in secure containers.

    Blog text (28)
  • He gave me a box full of medicaments, band aids, etcetera, and then I never used it.

  • German botanist Georg Rumphius repeated this idea from Indonesia, "the Creator ... provided each ... country with its own medicaments."

    Academic text (2018)
  • He took the medicament daily to manage his chronic condition.

  • They tested a new medicament aimed at reducing inflammation in patients.

Synonyms

medication
vsmedicament
588 2.7

A medicine you take to treat or prevent illness

is the same meaning but is the more formal technical term
medicine
vsmedicament
  • Specialized
529 1.0

A substance you take to treat or prevent illness

is the same idea but emphasizes the single technical term
med
vsmedicament
  • Informal
217 7.2

Something you take to treat an illness or make you feel better

is the standard medical term rather than casual speech
remedy
vsmedicament
77 3.4

A medicine or treatment that treats illness and reduces pain

is the substance term and does not necessarily imply a cure
pharmaceutical
vsmedicament
  • Specialized
18 4.6

A medicine used to treat or prevent illness

is the broader substance term not limited to pharmacy sources
medicinal drug
vsmedicament
  • Specialized
3.3

A substance used to treat, prevent, or reduce symptoms of illness

is the general word without stressing medical context

How Technical

pharmaceutical
  • Specialized
18 4.6
medicament
  • Specialized
1 7.7
medication
588 2.7
medicine
  • Specialized
529 1.0
drug
  • NSFW
1.9
remedy
77 3.4

Surface Forms

medicament singular
medicaments plural

Morphology

medicament = medicine (semi-transparent) = medic + ament

The meaning closely matches 'medicine' so learners can often guess it, but the suffix '-ament' is a non-productive borrowing in modern English and the word is a formal/loanword rather than a regular native derivation.

Etymology

Medicament comes from the Latin root medic-, which means 'to heal' or 'doctor'. It is like the common word medicine, so a medicament is something given to heal, treat, or relieve an illness.