patient
Syllables: pa·tient/ˈpeɪ̯ʃənt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈpɛjʃənt/
patient adjective: willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.
Adjective
patient (comparative more patient, superlative most patient)
- Willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.
- Be patient: your friends will arrive in a few hours.
- Asari Cultural VI: Due to our lifespan-sometimes reaching 1,000 years of age-we are patient in our decisions, and prefer long-term solutions over short-term gains.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nexus
- Synonyms:
- composed, forbearing
- Constant in pursuit or exertion; persevering; calmly diligent.
- patient endeavour
- a patient wait
- Synonyms:
- determined, sedulous, steady
- Physically able to suffer or bear.
- To this outward structure was joined that strength of constitution, patient of severest toil and hardship; insomuch that for the most part of his life, in the fiercest extremity of cold, he took no other advantage of a fire, than at the greatest distance that he could, to look upon it.1661, John Fell, “Doctor Henry Hammond”, in Christopher Wordsworth, editor, Ecclesiastical Biography, volume 5, published 1810, page 380
- Synonyms:
- sufferable, resistant, tolerant
Noun
patient (plural patients)
- A person or animal that receives health care from a doctor, nurse, dentist, allied health practitioner, or other person educated in health care.
- Hello, is your practice currently accepting new patients? I'd like to become a patient there if so.
- At the veterinary clinic, caring for the patients successfully and dealing with the patients’ owners successfully are both necessary skills.
- The noun or noun phrase that is semantically on the receiving end of a verb's action.
- The subject of a passive verb is usually a patient.
- The number of a first or second person participant is generally marked for both agent and patient in all aspects.1982, Paul J. Hopper, Tense-aspect: Between Semantics & Pragmatics, →ISBN
- One who, or that which, is passively affected; a passive recipient.
- Malice is a passion so impetuous and precipitate, that it often involves the agent and the patient.c. 1658, Dr. Henry More, Government of the Tongue
- For it seems clear that the subject of change is the changed, i.e. the patient -- on one proviso. the proviso is that there be an agent or changer.1988, Sarah Waterlow, Sarah Broadie, Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's Physics, →ISBN, page 159
Proper noun capitalized: Patient
Patient (plural Patients)
- A surname.
patient meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
patient in Hindi
- not losing one's temper while waiting
- सहनशील sahanśīl
- someone who receives treatment from a doctor
- रोगी rogī, मरीज़ marīz, बीमार bīmār
patient in Tamil
- someone who receives treatment from a doctor
- நோயாளி nōyāḷi
patient in Marathi
- someone who receives treatment from a doctor
- रुग्ण rugṇa, रोगी rogī
patient in Urdu
- someone who receives treatment from a doctor
- مَرِیض marīz, بِیمار bīmār
More languagesFewer languages
- patient in Bengali
- রোগী rōgi
- patient in Telugu
- రోగి rōgi, వ్యాధిగ్రస్తుడు vyādhigrastuḍu
- patient in Malayalam
- പിണിയാൾ piṇiyāḷ
- patient in Kannada
- ಕುತ್ತೆ, ರೋಗಿ, ಅಸ್ವಸ್ಥ, ಕುತ್ತಿಗ
- patient in Punjabi
- ਮਰੀਜ਼ marīz
- patient in Gujarati
- દર્દી dardī
- patient in Sanskrit
- सहन sahana
- patient in Nepali
- बिरामी birāmī
- patient in Pashto
- بيمار bimãr, مريض maríz
- patient in Tagalog
- pasyente
- patient in Arabic
- صَبُور ṣabūr, مَرِيض marīḍ, مَرِيضَة marīḍa, مَفْعُول mafʕūl
- patient in Malay
- sabar, pesakit
- patient in Indonesian
- sabar, pasien
- patient in Persian
- صبور sabur, شکیبنده šekibande, شکیبا šekibâ, بردبار bordbâr
- patient in Thai
- คนไข้ kon-kâi, ผู้ป่วย pûu-bpùai
- patient in Vietnamese
- kiên nhẫn, bệnh nhân
- patient in Myanmar
- လူနာ luna
Examples of patient in a sentence
- The slightest effort made the patient cough.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- How does a person change from a patient to an agent in shaping and living a course of life?1994, Larry Cochran, Joan Laub, Becoming an Agent: Patterns and Dynamics for Shaping Your Life, →ISBN:
- According to the tradition, when an agent acts on a patient, the change is located in the patient.1999, Lloyd P. Gerson, Aristotle: Logic and metaphysics, →ISBN, page 127:
- The starting point is that all events involve an agent and a patient.2010, Mohua Banerjee, Anil Seth, Logic and Its Applications: Fourth Indian Conference, ICLA 2011, →ISBN, page 7:
Synonyms of patient
Antonyms
Forms of patient
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more patient |
| superlative | most patient |
| Noun | |
| plural | patients |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Patients |
Origin of patient
From Middle English pacient, from Middle French patient, from Old French pacient, from Latin patiens, present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate, hurt”).
Words formed from patient
- omnipatient
- overpatient
- patient as Job
- patiently
- unpatient
- patient zero
- copatient
- cyberpatient
- heartsink patient
- index patient
- inpatient
- interpatient
- intrapatient
- mental patient
- nonpatient
- outpatient
- patientcare
- patient contact
- patienthood
- patient information leaflet
- patientive
- patientless
- patientlike
- patientness
- patient of something
- patient role
- patient under investigation
- pseudopatient
- superpatient
- telepatient
- trans patient
- transpatient
- walking patient
- xenopatient
Phrases with patient
Questions about patient
- What does patient mean?
- Patient means willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.
- What is patient in Hindi?
- Patient in Hindi is सहनशील (sahanśīl), रोगी (rogī), मरीज़ (marīz). See Patient meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use patient in a sentence?
- The slightest effort made the patient cough.
- What part of speech is patient?
- Patient can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce patient?
- Patient is pronounced /ˈpeɪ̯ʃənt/.
Words near patient in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: patient (page history and authors); Patient (page history and authors); പിണിയാൾ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); patient (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਮਰੀਜ਼ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); દર્દી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); सहन (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); बिरामी (Nepali) (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-patient.ogg, en-us-patient.ogg.
Cite this entry: “patient.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/patient. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.