How to spell medical

hear itmed·i·cal/'mɛdɪkəl/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Relating to the treatment of illness and health.

In a sentence: The nurse gave me a special medical sticker.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as medicle or medikal.

Same family: medicine, medication, medic, medically, paramedic. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Medical” comes from Latin ‘medicus,’ meaning ‘physician’ or ‘doctor,’ and ‘medeor,’ meaning ‘to heal.’ It has been used in English since the 1600s to describe anything related to the art and science of healing.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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