Word.ws English Dictionary

what the doctor ordered

Syllables: what the doc·tor or·deredUK/ˌʍɒt ðə ˈdɒktə ˌɔːdəd/US/ˌʍɑt ðə ˈdɑktɚ ˌɔɹdɚd/

what the doctor ordered noun: exactly what is necessary or useful in a given situation; something very beneficial or desirable.

Noun

what the doctor ordered (uncountable)

  1. (idiomatic) Exactly what is necessary or useful in a given situation; something very beneficial or desirable.

Forms of what the doctor ordered

alternative formjust what the doctor ordered

Origin of what the doctor ordered

A reference to a doctor prescribing treatment to alleviate a patient’s illness, or a course of action (exercise, a healthy diet, relaxation, etc.) that will be beneficial to the patient’s health.

Questions about what the doctor ordered

What does what the doctor ordered mean?
What the doctor ordered means exactly what is necessary or useful in a given situation; something very beneficial or desirable.
What part of speech is what the doctor ordered?
What the doctor ordered is a noun.
How do you pronounce what the doctor ordered?
What the doctor ordered is pronounced /ˌʍɒt ðə ˈdɒktə ˌɔːdəd/ (UK).

Words near what the doctor ordered in the dictionary

  1. what the butler saw
  2. what the crap
  3. what the cuss
  4. what the deuce
  5. what the Devil
  6. what the doctor ordered
  7. what the ef
  8. what the eff
  9. what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over
  10. what the fish
  11. what the flip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what the doctor ordered (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-just what the doctor ordered.ogg.

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