Meaning & use
hydrotherapy
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountablemedical
The treatment of illness or injury using water, especially through exercise or soaking in warm water.
Grammar: Uncountable; do not say 'a hydrotherapy' or 'hydrotherapies'. Use it with 'have' or 'receive': 'She had hydrotherapy twice a week.'
Patterns
- have hydrotherapy
- receive hydrotherapy
- hydrotherapy for something
After knee surgery, he had hydrotherapy to strengthen his leg muscles.
Hydrotherapy can help people with arthritis move more easily in warm water.
The clinic offers hydrotherapy for patients recovering from sports injuries.
Common combinations
- hydrotherapy pool
- The hospital has a hydrotherapy pool kept at a warm temperature.
- hydrotherapy session
- Her hydrotherapy session lasted about forty minutes.
- undergo hydrotherapy
- He had to undergo hydrotherapy after the accident.
- hydrotherapy treatment
- The doctor recommended hydrotherapy treatment for her back pain.
Synonyms and how they differ
- water therapy
- A general term; hydrotherapy is more specific to medical or therapeutic use of water.
- aquatic therapy
- Often used for exercise-based treatment in water; hydrotherapy can also include passive soaking.
Word family
- hydrotherapist noun
- A person trained to give hydrotherapy.
- hydrotherapeutic adjective
- Relating to hydrotherapy.
Commonly confused: hydrotherapy or hydration?
hydrotherapy vs hydration
Hydration means supplying the body with water to drink; hydrotherapy is using water externally for treatment.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses 'hydrotherapy' correctly.
Choose one answer.
Hydrotherapy is a treatment using water, often for injuries, so 'received hydrotherapy' fits. The other options confuse it with drinking water or with an object you can buy.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hydrotherapy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.