clinical
adjective
Simple meaning
Dealing with the practical management of patients, in practice at the point of care.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klinuhkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈklɪnəkəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
medicine
Dealing with the practical management of patients, in practice at the point of care; as contrasted with other health care venues.
Relating to a clinic or conducted in or as if in a clinic and depending on direct observation of patients
Of or pertaining to a clinic, such as a medical clinic or law clinic.
Cool and emotionless, in a professional way, as contrasted with an impetuous or unprofessional way.
Objective; analytical.
Excellent and precise.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Relating to a clinic or conducted in or as if in a clinic and depending on direct observation of patients
Used this way, clinical is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use clinical
- “Clinical observation.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Relating
Dealing
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A practitioner (of medicine or psychology) who does clinical work instead of laboratory experiments.
A medical establishment run by a group of medical specialists.
In a clinical manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects.
A mercury thermometer designed to measure the temperature of the human body.
A rigorously controlled test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on human subjects.
The practical application of anatomical knowledge to diagnosis and treatment.
The branch of medicine that deals with the nervous system and its disorders.
A therapist who deals with mental and emotional disorders.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A laboratory test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on animal subjects.
A laboratory test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on animal subjects.
A laboratory test of a new drug or a new invasive medical device on animal subjects.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.