Patient
adj, name, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A person or animal that receives health care from a doctor, nurse, dentist, allied health practitioner, or other person educated in health care.
"Hello, is your practice currently accepting new patients? I'd like to become a patient there if so."
- 2 the semantic role of an entity that is not the agent but is directly involved in or affected by the happening denoted by the verb in the clause wordnet
- 3 The noun or noun phrase that is semantically on the receiving end of a verb's action.
"The subject of a passive verb is usually a patient."
- 4 a person who requires medical care wordnet
- 5 One who, or that which, is passively affected; a passive recipient.
"Malice is a passion so impetuous and precipitate, that it often involves the agent and the patient."
- 1 Willing to wait if necessary; not losing one's temper while waiting.
"Be patient: your friends will arrive in a few hours."
- 2 Constant in pursuit or exertion; persevering; calmly diligent.
"patient endeavour"
- 3 Physically able to suffer or bear. obsolete
"To this outward structure was joined that strength of constitution, patient of severest toil and hardship; insomuch that for the most part of his life, in the fiercest extremity of cold, he took no other advantage of a fire, than at the greatest distance that he could, to look upon it."
- 1 enduring trying circumstances with even temper or characterized by such endurance wordnet
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Be patient please. It takes time."
Etymology
From Middle English pacient, from Middle French patient, from Old French pacient, from Latin patiens, present participle of patior (“to suffer, endure”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate, hurt”).
Related phrases
More for "patient"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.