What does "pseudo-medicine" mean?

Any system of treatment of physical ailments, or substances prescribed for such treatment, purported to be medical or supported by critical medical science but which cannot be shown to be effective

What is a synonym for "pseudo-medicine"?

Common synonyms include: health fraud, quackery.

Pseudo-medicine

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any system of treatment of physical ailments, or substances prescribed for such treatment, purported to be medical or supported by critical medical science but which cannot be shown to be effective countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

health fraud quackery

Etymology

From pseudo- + medicine. 19th-century coinage (1820s or 1830s).

Related phrases

pseudo-medical

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.