Meaning & use
therapeutic
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Helping someone feel calmer, better or healthier, even if no illness is being treated.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a therapeutic walk, gardening is therapeutic.
Patterns
- be therapeutic
- find something therapeutic
Many people find gardening therapeutic after a stressful day.
The sound of rain was oddly therapeutic.
Writing in a journal can be a therapeutic habit.
adjectivebefore a nounmedicaltechnical
Relating to the treatment of disease or disorder, or intended to cure or ease it.
Grammar: Medical usage, usually before a noun: a therapeutic drug, therapeutic treatment.
Patterns
- therapeutic effect
- therapeutic use
The drug has a therapeutic effect on blood pressure.
Researchers tested the therapeutic benefits of the herb.
Doctors discussed the therapeutic options for the disease.
Common combinations
- therapeutic effect
- Music had a therapeutic effect on the patients.
- therapeutic value
- Walking by the sea has real therapeutic value.
- therapeutic benefit
- The study found a therapeutic benefit for older adults.
- therapeutic massage
- A therapeutic massage eased the pain in her shoulders.
- therapeutic use
- The plant has a long history of therapeutic use.
Synonyms and how they differ
- healing
- Healing stresses the process of getting well, while therapeutic stresses that something is meant to treat or ease a condition.
- curative
- Curative means able to cure completely, which is stronger than therapeutic, as a therapeutic treatment may only relieve symptoms.
- soothing
- Soothing means calming or gentle, with no medical suggestion at all.
- remedial
- Remedial describes treatment that corrects a problem, and is also used of school lessons for students who are behind.
Opposites
Word family
- therapy noun
- treatment of illness or distress
- therapist noun
- a person trained to give therapy
- therapeutically adverb
- in a way that treats or heals
- therapeutics noun
- the branch of medicine dealing with treatment
Commonly confused: therapeutic or theoretical?
therapeutic vs theoretical
Theoretical describes ideas that are not yet tested in practice, and has nothing to do with healing, though the spelling looks similar.
Practice
Many hospitals use painting classes because the activity is ____ for patients recovering from long illness.
Choose one answer.
Therapeutic means helping a person heal or feel better. Theoretical, terrific and temporary do not carry that meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “therapeutic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.