patient

Pluralpatients

1. 1
   medical carenouncountable

   A person or animal that receives medical care from a doctor, nurse, dentist, or other trained health worker.

   The patient described her symptoms before the doctor began the examination.

   Several patients were transferred to the new wing overnight.

2. 2
   adjective

   Able to wait, or to accept delays, problems, or difficulties calmly without becoming annoyed; also, showing calm, steady persistence in an effort over a long time.

   She remained patient even as the meeting dragged past midnight.

   A patient gardener waits months for the first blooms.

   UsageUsually patient with a person: patient with the children. Be patient is a common request.

   Similartolerant, forbearing, uncomplaining, persevering, persistent

   Oppositeimpatient, restless, intolerant

   Note

   Endurance is the idea behind every sense of the word. Through Middle English pacient and French, it comes from Latin patiens, 'suffering, enduring.' Here the thing endured is delay. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • English patient derives through Middle English pacient and French from Latin patiens. en.wiktionary.org
   • Latin patiens means suffering or enduring. en.wiktionary.org
3. 3
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that undergoes or is affected by an action, especially, in grammar, the participant that receives the effect of a verb's action.

   Every action involves an agent that initiates it and a patient that receives its effect.

   For Aristotle, the change happens in the patient, not in the agent that causes it.

   Oppositeagent

   Note

   Philosophy pairs the word with agent, much as grammar does. The Government of the Tongue, a seventeenth-century devotional book, says malice 'often equally involves the agent and the patient.' It belongs to a tradition traced back to Aristotle, in which change is located in the thing acted upon. The roles can trade places: when a patient reacts on its agent, the agent becomes a patient in the new relation. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

   • Philosophy pairs agent and patient. classics.mit.edu
   • Grammar also pairs agent and patient. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Government of the Tongue was first published in the seventeenth century. collections.soane.org
   • The Government of the Tongue is a devotional work. ccel.org
   • The quotation omits equally: the text reads 'often equally involves the Agent and the Patient.' ccel.org
   • The tradition locating change in the thing acted upon goes back to Aristotle. classics.mit.edu
   • An agent can itself become a patient when acted upon in return. classics.mit.edu

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