geriatrics
geriatrics noun: the branch of medicine that focuses on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of disease and disability in later life. The term itself can be distinguished from gerontology, which is the study of the aging process itself. Also the plural of geriatric.
Noun
geriatrics (uncountable)
- The branch of medicine that focuses on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of disease and disability in later life. The term itself can be distinguished from gerontology, which is the study of the aging process itself.
Also used as
geriatrics is also the plural of geriatric.
geriatrics meaning in Malay and Indonesian
geriatrics in Malay
- branch of medicine dealing with the elderly
- geriatrik
geriatrics in Indonesian
- branch of medicine dealing with the elderly
- geriatri
Origin of geriatrics
From Ancient Greek γῆρας (gêras, “old age”) (see γέρων (gérōn)) + ἰατρός (iatrós, “physician”); coined in English in 1909 by Ignatz L. Nascher in the New York Medical Journal on the model of pediatrics; correct formation would be gerontiatrics. Compare gerontology.
Words formed from geriatrics
Questions about geriatrics
- What does geriatrics mean?
- Geriatrics means the branch of medicine that focuses on health promotion and the prevention and treatment of disease and disability in later life. The term itself can be distinguished from gerontology, which is the study of the aging process itself.
- What is geriatrics in Malay?
- Geriatrics in Malay is geriatrik. See Geriatrics meaning in Malay.
- What part of speech is geriatrics?
- Geriatrics is a noun.
Words near geriatrics in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: geriatrics (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:
Cite this entry: “geriatrics.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/geriatrics. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.