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clinical

adjectivenouncommon in dialogue

  • //ˈklɪn.ɪ.kəl//

Dealing with the practical management of patients, in practice at the point of care; as contrasted with other health care venues (see clinical medicine for more explanation).

adjective

  1. 1

    Dealing with the practical management of patients, in practice at the point of care; as contrasted with other health care venues (see clinical medicine for more explanation).

    “We are social beings,” Jaime Blandino, a clinical psychologist in Decatur, Georgia, told CNN. “My most extroverted clients are having the hardest time.”

  2. 2

    Of or pertaining to a clinic, such as a medical clinic or law clinic.

    Medicine is now more often practiced in a clinical setting than in the home.

  3. 3

    Cool and emotionless, in a professional way, as contrasted with an impetuous or unprofessional way.

  4. 4

    Objective; analytical.

    We took a clinical approach to resolving conflicts.

  5. 5

    Excellent and precise.

    Fly-half Jonny Wilkinson put his below-par performance against Argentina behind him with a fine first-half showing, slotting four kicks from six and controlling his back-line with aplomb, while England's three-quarters were brimming with life and clinical with their execution.

    Remarkably United’s 10 men almost salvaged an improbable draw during a late, spirited challenge. They showed great competitive courage in that period and there were chances for Robin van Persie, Ángel Di María and Marouane Fellaini to punish City for defending too deeply and not being more clinical with their opportunities at the other end.

    Jones was insanely productive last season. He is a clinical route-runner who can line up at any position and catches everything.

    Jude Bellingham has blossomed into a clinical scorer since joining Real Madrid. Now his team hopes Bellingham will be fully fit when he faces his first “clasico” match at Barcelona on Saturday.

  6. 6

    obsoleteOf or relating to a bed, especially a deathbed.

    a clinical convert: one who turns to religion on their death-bed

    clinical baptism

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- Proto-Indo-European *-éyti Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- Proto-Indo-European *-né- Proto-Indo-European *ḱl̥néyti Proto-Hellenic *klíňňō Ancient Greek κλῑ́νω (klī́nō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek κλῑ́νη (klī́nē) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ῐκός (-ĭkós) Ancient Greek κλῑνῐκός (klīnĭkós)bor. Late Latin clīnicus French cliniquebor. English clinic English -al English clinical From clinic + -al.

noun

  1. 1

    A medical student's session spent in a real-world nursing environment.

Forms

plural
clinicals
comparative
more clinical
superlative
most clinical
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).