doctor

• doctour (obsolete)

From Middle English doctor (“an expert, authority on a subject”), doctour, from Anglo-Norman doctour, from Latin doctor (“teacher”), from doceō (“I 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”)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɒktə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɑktɚ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒktə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: doc‧tor

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 D.O., DPM, M.D., DMD, DDS, DPT, DC, Pharm.D., in the US or MBBS in the UK.

   If you still feel unwell tomorrow, see your doctor.

   • Shakespeare

     By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death / Will seize the doctor too.

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.
   • Francis Bacon

     one of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel

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"

   • 2010, Ramesh Bangia, Dictionary of Information Technology (page 172)

     The use of a disk doctor may be the only way of recovering valuable data following a disk crash.

7. A fish, the friar skate.

• Doctor is capitalized when used as a title:

  Doctor Smith

• In the UK and Commonwealth a surgeon (including a dental or veterinary surgeon) is commonly addressed as Mr./Ms./Mrs. rather than Doctor, even if holding a doctor's degree.

• (physician): doc (informal), family doctor, general practitioner, GP (UK), medic, physician, sawbones (slang), surgeon (who undertakes surgery); see also Thesaurus:physician
• (veterinarian): vet, veterinarian, veterinary, veterinary surgeon

See also Types of academic doctor below

• Sranan Tongo: datra

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. (intransitive, humorous) To act as a medical doctor.
   • 2017, "Do No Harm", season 8, episode 2 of Adventure Time

     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!

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. (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.

7. (intransitive, obsolete) To take medicine.

• doctorand
• Wikipedia article on doctorates
• surgeon

doctor m (plural doctores)

1. doctor (person who has attained a doctorate)

doctor m (plural doctors)

1. doctor

From Middle Dutch doctor, from Latin doctor (“teacher, instructor”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔktɔr/, /ˈdɔktər/

• Audio

  (file)

doctor m (plural doctors or doctoren, diminutive doctortje n)

1. doctor (person who has attained a doctorate)

• dr.

• doctorandus

• dokter

From doceō (“teach”) +‎ -tor.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdɔk.tɔr/

doctor m (genitive doctōris); third declension

1. teacher, instructor
   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 5.1310–1312:

     […] et validos partim prae se misere leones
     cum doctoribus armatis saevisque magistris
     qui moderarier his possent vinclisque tenere,

     […] and some let out before them strong lions,
     with armed trainers and fierce masters
     to manage them and hold them in restraints,

2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) catechist

Third declension.

• doctōrō (Mediaeval)
• doctrīna
• doctrix

• doctor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• doctor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• doctor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• doctor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• doctor in Ramminger, Johann (accessed 16 July 2016) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎, pre-publication website, 2005-2016

• doftor (popular)
• доктор (post-1930s (Moldavian) Cyrillic spelling)

Borrowed from Latin doctor (17th century), French docteur or German Doktor.

• IPA^(key): [ ˈdok.tor ]

doctor m (plural doctori, feminine equivalent doctoriță or (nonstandard) doctoră)

1. doctor

• medic

• Dr.

Borrowed from Latin doctor.

• IPA^(key): /doɡˈtoɾ/, [d̪oɣˈt̪oɾ]

doctor m (plural doctores, feminine doctora, feminine plural doctoras)

1. doctor (Ph.D.)
2. physician

• (physician): médico

• doctorado
• doctorante