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doctor

Pronunciation: /ˈdɒktə(ɹ)/

The English word “doctor” has 17 meanings listed here.

noun

  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 DO, DPM, MD, DMD, or DDS in the US, or MBBS or BDS in the UK.
  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. A teacher; one skilled in a profession or a branch of knowledge; a learned man.
  6. Any mechanical contrivance intended to remedy a difficulty or serve some purpose in an exigency.
  7. A fish, the friar skate.
  8. A witch doctor.
  9. A ship's cook.

verb

  1. To act as a medical doctor to.
  2. To act as a medical doctor.
  3. To make (someone) into an (academic) doctor; to confer a doctorate upon.
  4. To physically alter (medically or surgically) a living being in order to change growth or behavior.
  5. To genetically alter an extant species.
  6. To alter or make obscure, as with the intention to deceive, especially a document.
  7. To adulterate, drug, or poison (drink).
  8. To take medicine.

Etymology

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

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.