Meaning & use
hospice
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A place or program that gives comfort and care to people who are dying, rather than trying to cure them.
Grammar: Countable when talking about a building: a hospice, two hospices. Uncountable when talking about the type of care: she chose hospice.
Patterns
- a hospice for someone
- in hospice
- hospice care
After the doctors said nothing more could be done, he moved to a hospice near his daughter's house.
The hospice provides pain relief and emotional support for patients and their families.
She spent her final weeks in hospice, surrounded by people who loved her.
nouncountableold-fashioned
A home for travelers or sick people run by a religious group, especially in the past.
Grammar: This older sense is mainly found in historical or religious writing.
Patterns
- a hospice run by monks
- a medieval hospice
The medieval hospice gave food and a bed to pilgrims on their way to the cathedral.
Monks ran a hospice where sick travelers could rest and recover.
Word forms
| plural | hospices |
|---|
Common combinations
- hospice care
- Hospice care focuses on comfort, not on finding a cure.
- a hospice nurse
- A hospice nurse visits our home twice a week.
- go into a hospice
- When his condition got worse, he went into a hospice.
- a hospice patient
- The hospice patient said the staff made her feel safe.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hospice care
- Use this when you mean the service or approach rather than the building.
- palliative care
- This is the medical term for treating pain and symptoms; it can happen in a hospital too, not only in a hospice.
Word family
- hospice worker noun
- A person employed to care for patients in a hospice.
Commonly confused: hospice or hospital? hospice or hostel?
hospice vs hospital
A hospital tries to cure illness and injury; a hospice gives comfort to people who are dying.
hospice vs hostel
A hostel is cheap shared accommodation for travelers or students, not a place for medical care.
Practice
After the treatment stopped working, the family decided to move him to a ___ where he could be kept comfortable.
Choose one answer.
A hospice is specifically for comfort at the end of life. A hospital is for treatment and tests, so it does not fit the idea of stopping curative care.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hospice”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.