American Heritage Dictionary Entry: doctor HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key. Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window. guide to the dictionary THE USAGE PANEL The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions. The Panelists NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE? Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions. -- AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android. THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more. OPEN DICTIONARY PROJECT Share your ideas for new words and new meanings of old words! Start Sharing Now! -- See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series! Find out more! INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES? Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com doc·tor (dŏktər) Share: Tweet n. 1. a. A person who is licensed to practice medicine and has trained at a school of medicine or a school of osteopathic medicine; a physician. b. Any of certain other healthcare professionals, such as a dentist, optometrist, chiropractor, podiatrist, or veterinarian. 2. A practitioner of alternative medicine or folk medicine who does not have traditional medical credentials. 3. a. A person who has earned the highest academic degree, usually a PhD, awarded by a college or university in a specified discipline. b. A person awarded an honorary degree by a college or university. 4. Abbr. Dr. Used as a title and form of address for a person holding the degree of doctor. 5. Roman Catholic Church An eminent theologian. 6. A rig or device contrived for remedying an emergency situation or for doing a special task. v. doc·tored, doc·tor·ing, doc·tors v.tr. 1. Informal To give medical treatment to: "[He] does more than practice medicine. He doctors people. There's a difference" (Charles Kuralt). 2. To repair, especially in a makeshift manner; rig. 3. a. To falsify or change in such a way as to make favorable to oneself: doctored the evidence. b. To add ingredients so as to improve or conceal the taste, appearance, or quality of: doctor the soup with a dash of sherry. c. To alter or modify for a specific end: doctored my standard speech for the small-town audience. d. Baseball To deface or apply a substance to (the ball) in violation of the rules in order to throw a pitch with extraordinary movement: was ejected because he doctored the ball with a piece of sandpaper. v.intr. Informal To practice medicine. [Middle English, an expert, authority, from Old French docteur, from Latin doctor, teacher, from docēre, to teach; see dek- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] doctor·al (dŏktə-rəl, dŏk-tôrəl) adj. doctor·ly adj. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices: Indo-European Roots Semitic Roots The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. 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