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medicine

/ˈmɛd.ɪ.sɪn/
noun

MEDICINE scores 13 points in Scrabble and 63 as a bingo, and its only one-letter neighbour is the rare MEDICIDE.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. A substance which specifically promotes healing when ingested or consumed in some way; a pharmaceutical drug.

    “This medicine has fewer adverse effects than others in its drug class.”

  2. Any treatment or cure.

    “A legislative remedy might be some harsh medicine; is that cure worse than the ill?”

  3. The study of the cause, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease or illness.

    “She's studying medicine at university because she wants to be a doctor in the future.”

  4. The profession and practice of physicians, including surgeons.

    “The history of medicine can be discretized into eras with differing relationships between physicians and surgeons”

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English medicin, from Middle French medicine, from Old French medecine, from Latin medicīna (“the healing art, medicine, a physician's shop, a remedy, medicine”), feminine of medicīnus (“of or belonging to physic or surgery, or to a physician or surgeon”), from medicus (“a physician, surgeon”).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
pharmaceuticalregimencourseprogramprescription

MEDICINE is a substance that promotes healing, any treatment or cure, and the study of such things. As a word, it ranks 1,860 in frequency. The letters are tidy: two Es, two Is and a pair of 3-point tiles in M and C.

MEDICINE at a glance

  • Eight letters: M, E, D, I, C, I, N, E.
  • Base score is 13, with M and C worth 3 each.
  • MEDICIDE is the lone neighbour; no anagrams exist.
  • It sits at 1,860 on the frequency ladder.

What is a MEDICINE bingo worth?

The base is 13: M3, E1, D2, I1, C3, I1, N1, E1. Play every tile on your rack in one turn, with a board letter helping, and the 50-point bonus lifts the total to 63.

Two Es and two Is make the word vowel-heavy, so it clears four vowels at once and suits a rack that is short of consonants.

How do the senses of MEDICINE differ?

The first is physical: a substance taken to promote healing, or a pharmaceutical drug. The second is wider: any treatment or cure, including a figurative one. The third names the field of study itself, as in the study of causes and treatments.

Scrabble does not care which sense you mean, only that the spelling is valid.

Treat the word as a vocabulary item here, not advice: the board only checks spelling. The senses overlap, which is why a single entry covers a drug, a treatment and a field of study.

Where does MEDICINE fit among eight-letter words?

The E ending is the common half here: 4,577 eight-letter words end in E, about 11 percent, while 2,157 begin with M. The -INE tail matches LINE, FINE, ONLINE, MINE and IMAGINE in spelling.

Check your game’s word list before trying MEDICIDE, which swaps the N for a D and is far less familiar.

Rhymes with medicine

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest
  • MEDICIDE14

Questions people ask

How many points is medicine worth in Scrabble?
MEDICINE scores 13 points on tiles: M and C are worth 3 each, D is worth 2, and the other five letters are worth 1 each. A full bingo adds 50 for a total of 63.
Does medicine have anagrams?
No. MEDICINE has zero anagrams, so its eight letters spell only this word. Its one neighbour, MEDICIDE, trades the N for a D and scores 14.
How common is the word medicine?
Yes, it turns up often: rank 1,860, count 26,958, Zipf 4.73. Newspapers, shops and schools all use it, and the three senses of drug, treatment and field of study keep it in steady demand.

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