What does "cure" mean?
A method, device or medication that restores good health.
Cure
/kjɔː(r)/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A method, device or medication that restores good health.
- Grammar: cure is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: remedy, abbe, administration, advowson.
- Useful contrasts: blighted, cankered, indisposed.
- Usage evidence: The doctor can cure your son of the disease.
How to use "cure"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "cure" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "cure" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "cure" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "cure" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "cure" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "remedy" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "cure", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A method, device or medication that restores good health.
"When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies."
- 2 An eccentric person. UK, obsolete, slang
"The mud was thick — the crossing clean — / A well dressed man, genteel of mien — / Walked through the first (he might be poor), / The sweeper muttered, "He's a Cure.""
- 3 a medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieve pain wordnet
- 4 An act of healing or state of being healed; restoration to health after a disease, or to soundness after injury.
"Past hope! past cure!"
- 5 A solution to a problem. figuratively
"Cold, hunger, prisons, ills without a cure."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 A process of preservation, as by smoking.
- 7 Cured fish.
"Well into the twentieth century, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia's Grand Banks fleet stayed with sail power. "The Lunenburg cure," heavily salted on the schooners and then dried on flakes along the rocky sheltered coastline, was traded in the Caribbean."
- 8 A process of solidification or gelling.
- 9 A process whereby a material is caused to form permanent molecular linkages by exposure to chemicals, heat, pressure or weathering.
- 10 Care, heed, or attention. obsolete
"vicarages of great cure, but small value"
- 11 Spiritual charge; care of soul; the office of a parish priest or of a curate.
"This worke devysed is For suche as do amys, And specyally to controule Such as have cure of soule, […] No good priest to offende, But suche dawes to amend, […]"
- 12 That which is committed to the charge of a parish priest or of a curate.
Verb
- 1 To restore to health. transitive
"Unaided nature cured him."
- 2 provide a cure for, make healthy again wordnet
- 3 To bring (a disease or its bad effects) to an end. transitive
"Unaided nature cured his ailments."
- 4 prepare by drying, salting, or chemical processing in order to preserve wordnet
- 5 To cause to be rid of (a defect). transitive
"Experience will cure him of his naïveté."
Show 9 more definitions
- 6 be or become preserved wordnet
- 7 To prepare or alter, especially by chemical or physical processing for keeping or use. transitive
"The smoke and heat cures the meat."
- 8 make (substances) hard and improve their usability wordnet
- 9 To preserve (food), typically by salting.
- 10 To bring about a cure of any kind. intransitive
- 11 To undergo a chemical or physical process for preservation or use. intransitive
"The meat was put in the smokehouse to cure."
- 12 To solidify or gel. intransitive
"The parts were curing in the autoclave."
- 13 To become healed. intransitive, obsolete
"One desperate grief cures with another's languish."
- 14 To pay heed; to care; to give attention. obsolete
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
Example
"The doctor can cure your son of the disease."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "cure"?
Common synonyms include: remedy, abbe, administration, advowson, agency, agentship.
How do you use "cure" in a sentence?
The doctor can cure your son of the disease.
How do you pronounce "cure"?
Pronounced /kjɔː(r)/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English cure, borrowed from Old French cure (“care, cure, healing, cure of souls”), from Latin cura (“care, medical attendance, cure”). Displaced native Old English hǣlu, but survived as heal.
Etymology 2
From Middle English curen, from Old French curer, from Latin cūrāre. Partially displaced Old English ġehǣlan, whence Modern English heal.
Etymology 3
From curiosity.
Etymology 4
* As an Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname, reduced from McClure. Also compare McIver. * As an English surname, from the noun cure.