Word.ws English Dictionary

bedside manner

Syllables: bed·side man·nerUK/ˌbɛdsaɪd ˈmænə/US/ˌbɛdˌsaɪd ˈmænɚ/

bedside manner noun: the ability of a doctor, medic, nurse, or other healthcare professional, to interact with their patients; the quality or nature of their interactive style.

bedside manner: the ability of a doctor, medic, nurse, or other healthcare professional, to interact with their...
Image: Suzanne M. Day, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bedside manner (countable and uncountable, plural bedside manners)

  1. The ability of a doctor, medic, nurse, or other healthcare professional, to interact with their patients; the quality or nature of their interactive style.
    • In physic, a graceful Lord Charles, with a sweet bedside manner, might be very formidable; and, by degrees, the awkwardness of the fee might be got over. [Quoting the Edinburgh Review.]1848 July 29, Thomas Wakley, editor, The Lancet: A Journal of British and Foreign Medical and Chemical Science, Criticism, Literature and News, volume II, London: Printed for the editor, and...
    • Lady Visitor. "Oh that's your Doctor, is it? What sort of a doctor is he?" / Lady Resident. "Oh well, I don't know much about his ability; but he's got a very good bedside manner!"1884 March 15, “Annals of a winter health resort”, in Punch, or the London Charivari, volume LXXXVI, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, →DOI, →OCLC, page 121

Examples of bedside manner in a sentence

  • He was renowned for his sympathetic bedside manner.1898, B[ithia] M[ary] Croker, “chapter XXVI”, in Miss Balmaine’s Past (Lippincott’s Series of Select Novels), Philadelphia, Pa.: J. B....
  • Our bedside manner matters because it indicates to patients whether they can trust us.2013, Mark T. Hughes, “Thinking about Medicine”, in John A. Flynn, Michael J. Choi, L. Dwight Wooster, editors, Oxford American Handbook of...
  • But they share the same age (both are 37) and a friendly bedside manner that allows them to make even the cagiest of chief executives feel at home.2021 July 30, Alex Hawgood, “These Clubhouse Hosts Are Keeping the Party Alive”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms of bedside manner

pluralbedside manners

Origin of bedside manner

From bedside + manner, from the fact that doctors and nurses usually stand or sit at the bedsides of their patients when speaking to them.

Words that rhyme with bedside manner

Questions about bedside manner

What does bedside manner mean?
Bedside manner means the ability of a doctor, medic, nurse, or other healthcare professional, to interact with their patients; the quality or nature of their interactive style.
How do you use bedside manner in a sentence?
He was renowned for his sympathetic bedside manner.
What part of speech is bedside manner?
Bedside manner is a noun.
How do you pronounce bedside manner?
Bedside manner is pronounced /ˌbɛdsaɪd ˈmænə/ (UK).
What is the plural of bedside manner?
The plural of bedside manner is bedside manners.

Words near bedside manner in the dictionary

  1. bedsheet ballots
  2. bedsheeting
  3. bedsheetings
  4. bedsheets
  5. bedside
  6. bedside manner
  7. bedside manners
  8. bedside sleeper
  9. bedside table
  10. bedside tables
  11. bedsides

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bedside manner (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bedside manner.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bedside manner.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bedside_manner. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.