Meaning & use
heal
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To become healthy again, or for an injury or illness to get better by itself.
Grammar: No object; the thing that recovers is the subject: the cut healed.
Patterns
- heal over
- heal up
The cut on my knee healed in a week.
It took months for the broken bone to heal.
The wound healed cleanly without a scar.
verbtransitive
To make a person or a part of the body healthy again.
Grammar: Takes an object: heal a patient, heal a wound.
Patterns
- heal someone
- heal something
The medicine healed her infection.
Rest and warmth healed the child.
The doctor healed the wound with careful stitches.
verbtransitive or intransitivefigurative
To repair hurt feelings, a damaged relationship or a divided community.
Grammar: Takes a feeling or relationship as object, or has none: time heals, they healed the rift.
Patterns
- heal a rift
- heal old wounds
Time will heal your grief.
The apology helped heal the rift between the families.
Their friendship healed slowly after the argument.
Word forms
| third person singular | heals |
|---|---|
| past tense | healed |
| past participle | healed |
| -ing form | healing |
Common combinations
- heal a wound
- It takes time to heal a wound.
- heal completely
- The bone healed completely.
- heal a rift
- They tried to heal the rift in the party.
- time heals
- They say time heals all wounds.
- heal slowly
- Burns heal slowly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cure
- Cure is for ending an illness completely, while heal is often used for injuries and emotions as well.
- recover
- Recover describes the person getting well, whereas heal can describe a wound or a relationship.
- mend
- Mend is more informal and used for bones and broken things as well as relationships, but it feels less medical.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: heal or heel? heal or he'll?
heal vs heel
Heel is the back part of the foot, and it is pronounced the same way as heal, so check the spelling for the meaning.
heal vs he'll
He'll is the contraction of he will and sounds just like heal.
Practice
Which sentence uses heal correctly?
Choose one answer.
Heal is the verb meaning to get better. Heel is a part of the foot, hail is frozen rain, and heals does not agree with will.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “heal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.