Word.ws English Dictionary

doctor

Syllables: doc·tor/ˈdɒktə(ɹ)//ˈdɑktɚ/

doctor noun: a physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are DO, DPM, MD, DMD, or DDS in the US, or MBBS or BDS in the UK.

Noun (1)

doctor (plural doctors)

  1. A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are DO, DPM, MD, DMD, or DDS in the US, or MBBS or BDS in the UK.
    • If you still feel unwell tomorrow, see your doctor.
    • By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death / Will seize the doctor too.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
  2. A person who has attained a doctorate, such as a Ph.D. or Th.D. or one of many other terminal degrees conferred by a college or university.
  3. A veterinarian; a medical practitioner who treats non-human animals.
  4. A nickname for a person who has special knowledge or talents to manipulate or arrange transactions.
  5. (obsolete) A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.
    • So from that tyme forwarde I began to ſmell the word of god, and forſoke the ſchole doctors and ſuch foolries.1552, Hughe Latymer [i.e., Hugh Latimer], Augustine Bernher, compiler, “[The First Sermon]”, in Certayn Godly Sermons, Made uppon the Lords Prayer, […], London: […] John Day, […], published 1562...
    • one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  6. (dated) Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.
    • the doctor of a calico-printing machine, which is a knife to remove superfluous colouring matter
    • the doctor, or auxiliary engine, also called "donkey engine"
  7. A fish, the friar skate.
  8. (obsolete) A witch doctor.
    • [T]he material operation is that the doctor would catch a certain species of lizard under particular circumstances at a particular time. He would croon over it the name of the man while gently rattling his ‘devil bones,’ thus calling up the evil spirit that follows these particular charmed bones.1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 177
  9. (obsolete, slang) A ship's cook.
    • […] old Scotch Jem the boatswain, tunes his fiddle, and the doctor, (ship's cook,) produces his tambourine; the men dance on deck, […]1844, William Robert Wilde, Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean, page 124
    • His galley is small, and, microscopic as it is, it is shared by his brother in misery, the ship's cook, he whom the crew familiarly know as the “Doctor.”1881, The United Service, volume 5, page 212

Verb

doctor (third-person singular simple present doctors, present participle doctoring, simple past and past participle doctored)

  1. (transitive) To act as a medical doctor to.
    • Her children doctored her back to health.
  2. (humorous, intransitive) To act as a medical doctor.
    • Doctor Princess: Put this on. [gives her lab coat to Finn] OK, you're a doctor now. Good luck.
    • Finn: Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! I don't know how to doctor!2017, "Do No Harm", season 8, episode 2 of Adventure Time
  3. (transitive) To make (someone) into an (academic) doctor; to confer a doctorate upon.
  4. (transitive) To physically alter (medically or surgically) a living being in order to change growth or behavior.
    • They doctored their apple trees by vigorous pruning, and now the dwarfed trees are easier to pick.
    • We may legally doctor a pet to reduce its libido.
  5. (transitive) To genetically alter an extant species.
    • Mendel's discoveries showed how the evolution of a species may be doctored.
  6. (figuratively, transitive) To alter or make obscure, as with the intention to deceive, especially a document.
    • To doctor the signature of an instrument with intent to defraud is an example of forgery.
    • That picture – the one that Andrew claimed on BBC’s Newsnight might have been doctored, since he had “no recollection” of then or ever meeting Giuffre at Tramp nightclub in London – will likely serve as both a prequel and postscript of the saga.2022 February 15, Edward Helmore, “How a picture came to symbolize the Prince Andrew sexual abuse case”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  7. (transitive) To adulterate, drug, or poison (drink).
    • There is no doubt that a few months ago Creake deliberately planned to poison her with some weed-killer. […] The gist of it was that she had the strongest suspicion that Creake doctored a bottle of stout which he expected she would drink for her supper when she was alone.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To take medicine.

Proper noun capitalized: Doctor

the Doctor

  1. (abbreviation) Short for Fremantle Doctor.

Noun (2) capitalized: Doctor

Doctor (plural Doctors)

  1. The title of an academic or medical doctor; used before or instead of the doctor's name.
    • The students asked to see Doctor Jones.
    • Doctor Smith carried out the medical procedure.
    Synonyms:
    Dr, Dr.

Phrase capitalized: DOCTOR

DOCTOR

  1. A mnemonic to help remember the difference between the Spanish verbs ser and estar (both meaning "to be"); ser is generally used for: Descriptions, Occupations, Characteristics, Times, Origins, and Relationships.
    • SER is used to classify or identify attributes like, description, occupation, characteristic, time, origin or relationship. The acronym D-O-C-T-O-R could be helpful to remember it.2016 May, Edwin Alverio, ¡Manos a la Obra!, page 60
    • You can use the acronyms DOCTOR and PLACE to help you remember ser vs. estar, particularly for more specific cases when you’re not sure which verb to use.2021 November 18, Lydia Schapiro, “Ser and Estar: Mastering Spanish Conjugations”, in My Private Professor

doctor meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu

doctor in Hindi

person who has attained a doctorate
डॉक्टर ḍŏkṭar

doctor in Tamil

person who has attained a doctorate
டாக்டர் ṭākṭar

doctor in Marathi

person who has attained a doctorate
डॉक्टर ḍŏkṭar

doctor in Telugu

person who has attained a doctorate
డాక్టర్ ḍākṭar, డాక్టరు ḍākṭaru
More languagesFewer languages
doctor in Tagalog
paham, doktor
doctor in Arabic
دُكْتُور m or دُكْتُورَة duktūr, طَبِيب m or طَبِيبَة ṭabīb
doctor in Malay
doktor
doctor in Indonesian
doktor
doctor in Persian
دکتر doktor
doctor in Thai
ดอกเตอร์ dɔ́k-dtə̂ə, ดุษฎีบัณฑิต dùt-sà-dii-ban-dìt
doctor in Vietnamese
tiến sĩ
Kashmiri
طبِیٖب, ڈَاکٹر

Examples of doctor in a sentence

  • She's studying medicine at university because she wants to be a doctor in the future.
  • Seeing how ill she was, we sent for a doctor at once.
  • You should see a doctor about that rash on your arm.

All 40 example sentences with doctor

Synonyms of doctor

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of doctor

Forms of doctor

Noun
pluraldoctors
pluralDoctors
alternative form (obsolete)doctour
Verb
third-person singular presentdoctors
present participledoctoring
past participledoctored
pastdoctored

Past tense of doctor: doctored

Plural of doctor: doctors

Origin of doctor

From Middle English doctor, doctour (“an expert, authority on a subject”), from Anglo-Norman doctour, from Latin doctor (“teacher”), from doceō (“to teach”). Displaced native Middle English lerare (“doctor, teacher”) (from Middle English leren (“to teach, instruct”) from Old English lǣran, lēran (“to teach, instruct, guide”), compare Old English lārēow (“teacher, master”)). Displaced Old English lǣċe (“doctor, physician”).

A backronym from the word doctor.

Words formed from doctor

Phrases with doctor

50 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with doctor

Questions about doctor

What does doctor mean?
Doctor means a physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. The final examination and qualification may award a doctor degree in which case the post-nominal letters are DO, DPM, MD, DMD, or DDS in the US, or MBBS or BDS in the UK.
What is doctor in Hindi?
Doctor in Hindi is डॉक्टर (ḍŏkṭar). See Doctor meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is doctor?
Doctor can be a noun, a verb, a proper noun or a phrase.
How do you pronounce doctor?
Doctor is pronounced /ˈdɒktə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of doctor?
The plural of doctor is doctors.

Words near doctor in the dictionary

  1. docstring
  2. docstrings
  3. Docter
  4. Docters
  5. doctiloquent
  6. doctor
  7. Doctor Atkins
  8. doctor bird
  9. doctor birds
  10. doctor blade
  11. doctor blades

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doctor (page history and authors); Doctor (page history and authors); DOCTOR (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-uk-doctor.ogg, en-us-doctor.ogg.

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