clinical

Pluralclinicals

1. 1
   adjective

   Dealing with the practical management and treatment of patients at the point of care, as contrasted with laboratory research or other health care settings.

   After two years of coursework, medical students begin their clinical rotations in hospitals.

   The drug showed promise in the lab, but clinical results in actual patients were disappointing.

   Note

   Medicine draws its working line here, between care given to a patient and everything that happens away from one. A clinical psychologist like Jaime Blandino, speaking to CNN in 2020 about extroverted clients, treats people directly. The word does not depend on the building: unlike the "of a clinic" meaning, clinical care happens wherever the patient is, whether that is a ward, an office or a home.

2. 2
   adjective

   Relating to a clinic of any kind, such as a medical or legal clinic.

   The university's clinical legal program pairs students with clients who cannot afford a lawyer.

   Clinical hours at the neighborhood health center run from eight in the morning to six at night.

   Note

   The plainest reading of the word's makeup is clinic plus -al: anything that belongs to a clinic, whatever kind of clinic it is. Because a clinic can be legal as well as medical, the adjective reaches beyond health care. A clinical setting is a place, so the word answers the question where, not how.

3. 3
   adjective

   Showing a professional's cool detachment and lack of emotion, as opposed to acting impulsively or unprofessionally.

   Her clinical detachment unsettled the grieving family, who wanted sympathy rather than statistics.

   He described the breakup in clinical terms, as if reporting on someone else's life.

   Similarunemotional, dispassionate, emotionless, impassive, cold-hearted

   Oppositeemotional, warm, sympathetic

   Note

   The professional's composure has become a description of temperament: calm, unemotional, unhurried by feeling. Its nearest synonym is unemotional, and it is set against impetuous or unprofessional behavior. It describes feeling held in check. The "objective, analytical" meaning describes a method of examining facts instead. A clinical tone is cool, while a clinical review is impartial, and either can exist without the other.

4. 4
   adjective

   Objective and analytical; based on detached examination of the facts.

   The committee's clinical review of the budget ignored office politics entirely.

   Critics admired the memoir's clinical honesty about the author's failures.

   Similardetached, disinterested

   Oppositesubjective, biased

5. 5
   adjective

   Excellent and precise; carried out with flawless accuracy.

   The champion closed out the match with clinical efficiency, winning twelve of the last fourteen points.

   It was a clinical finish: one touch to control the ball, one to bury it.

   Similaraccurate, exact

   Oppositesloppy, wasteful, careless

   Note

   Sportswriting uses it as a term of praise for execution that wastes nothing. It turns up in rugby and soccer reporting and in American football, where Adam Kilgore called a receiver a clinical route-runner in 2023. It attaches most readily to the people and acts that turn chances into points: a clinical scorer, a clinical finish. Accurate and exact are its synonyms, but clinical adds a hint of coldness under pressure.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A period of hands-on training in which a medical or nursing student works with patients in a real hospital or other care setting.

   After her morning clinical on the cardiac ward, she stayed late to finish patient charts.

   He scheduled his clinicals around a part-time job at the pharmacy.

   Similarrotation, placement

   Note

   The adjective has become a countable noun in professional training. A student has a clinical on a given ward, and it is very often spoken of in the plural, clinicals, for the whole stretch of hands-on placements. It is the noun counterpart of the patient-care meaning, naming the time a student spends with real patients rather than in the classroom.

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