Virtuous English AcademyMedicine & Health — B2 English Vocabulary
This B2 vocabulary list gathers 50 upper-intermediate English words about medicine & health — disease, treatment and the body. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using medicine & health words in English
Clinical English uses several words in senses that differ sharply from everyday speech, and chronic is the clearest example: it means long-lasting, not severe. This page also separates epidemic from pandemic, sorts out contagious and infectious, and covers the Greek plural that turns diagnosis into diagnoses.
What to watch out for
Chronic means long-lasting, not serious
A chronic condition persists over months or years; an acute one begins suddenly and is short in duration. Neither says anything about severity, so a chronic condition can be mild and an acute one can be fatal. Everyday English has drifted — people say chronic to mean terrible — but in any medical or academic context the technical meaning is the one that will be assumed.
Epidemic, pandemic, endemic
An epidemic is a sharp rise in cases within one region. A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread across countries or continents. Endemic is different again: it describes a disease that is constantly present at a stable level in a population, which is why malaria is described as endemic in parts of Africa rather than epidemic.
Contagious spreads by contact; diagnose with
Infectious means caused by a pathogen and capable of spreading. Contagious is narrower: it spreads by direct or indirect contact. All contagious diseases are infectious, but tetanus is infectious without being contagious. Note the fixed patterns: you are diagnosed with a condition, immune to a disease, and an organ comes from a donor for a transplant.
Words learners mix up
Health vocabulary has to be exact, because these words carry consequences for the person being described. Three clusters do most of the work: what to call the condition, what recovery is being claimed, and who is actually treating you.
What do you call the condition?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| ailment | A minor illness. The word itself signals that nothing serious is meant — usually plural, and slightly old-fashioned. | The clinic treats coughs, rashes and similar ailments. |
| disorder | A recognised disturbance of normal function. The standard clinical noun, and neutral. | An eating disorder diagnosed in her twenties. |
| syndrome | A group of symptoms that reliably occur together, sometimes without a known single cause. | Irritable bowel syndrome affects one adult in ten. |
| hereditary | Passed from parents through genes. Distinct from congenital, which means present at birth from any cause. | The condition is hereditary on the mother’s side. |
| inflammation | The body’s swelling-and-heat response to injury or infection. A process, not a disease in itself. | Inflammation of the joints is the first sign. |
A syndrome is defined by its symptoms, a disorder by disturbed function — which is why a syndrome can be renamed a disorder once the mechanism is understood. And ailment should never be used of something serious: calling a diagnosis an ailment minimises it.
How much recovery is being claimed?
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| recuperate | To recover strength after illness or surgery, over time and usually at home. About the person. | He is recuperating after the operation. |
| rehabilitation | Structured treatment to restore lost function — movement, speech, independence. A programme, not a state. | Six weeks of rehabilitation after the stroke. |
| remission | The disease is no longer detectable or active. Crucially, it does not mean cured — it may return. | She has been in remission for three years. |
| therapeutic | The adjective for anything intended to heal. Also used loosely of anything soothing: therapeutic gardening. | The drug has a narrow therapeutic window. |
Remission is the one that must not be loosened. Writing that someone recovered from cancer where the source says in remission changes a careful clinical claim into a promise, and it is the commonest error in health reporting.
Who is treating you, and where
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| physician | A doctor who treats with medicine rather than surgery. Formal, and much more common in American usage. | The physician reviewed her medication. |
| paramedic | A trained emergency clinician who treats people before they reach hospital. Not a driver and not a nurse. | Paramedics stabilised him at the scene. |
| outpatient | A patient treated without staying overnight. Used attributively: an outpatient appointment. | The procedure is done on an outpatient basis. |
| intensive care | The hospital unit for patients needing constant monitoring. Two words, and abbreviated to ICU. | She spent four days in intensive care. |
In British English the everyday words are doctor, GP and consultant — a GP is the community generalist and a consultant the senior hospital specialist. Physician in a British sentence sounds either formal or American, and surgeon is the one that contrasts with it.
Collocations that sound natural
Prescriptions, patient leaflets and health reporting are written to a formula. These pairings recur constantly, and several take a preposition that cannot be guessed from the meaning.
remission
go into remissionin remissioncomplete remissionremission of symptoms
The verb is go into or be in. Nobody reaches or achieves remission in ordinary usage.
dosage
the recommended dosageexceed the dosageadjust the dosagea daily dose
Dosage is the schedule and amount overall; a dose is one administration. Leaflets say do not exceed the stated dose.
prescribe
prescribe medicationon prescriptiona repeat prescriptionprescribed for
Do not confuse with proscribe, which means to forbid — very nearly the opposite, and a single letter apart.
outbreak
an outbreak ofcontain an outbreaka localised outbreakthe outbreak spread
Always of plus the disease. Used of anything unwelcome and sudden, including violence.
immunity
immunity toherd immunitybuild up immunitya weakened immune system
The preposition is to, not against — though you immunise against a disease. Note the second, legal sense: diplomatic immunity.
transplant
a heart transplantundergo a transplanta transplant donorreject a transplant
The body rejects a transplant — the fixed verb, and it means an immune response rather than a decision.
Formal, neutral or informal?
This is a topic where the wrong word is not merely inaccurate but unkind, and it is also where British and American spellings diverge most visibly. Both matter in an exam and in real writing.
- tumour / anaesthetic / paralyseBritish spellingsAmerican English writes tumor, anesthetic and paralyze. This site uses the British forms throughout, and the same -our and ae patterns appear in behaviour and haemoglobin.
- terminalHandle carefullyMeans an illness expected to cause death. Accurate and used in medicine, but blunt — writing about people, life-limiting or naming the prognosis is gentler. Fatal describes an outcome that has already happened.
- obesity / diabetesPerson-firstCurrent health-writing convention prefers a person with obesity and a person with diabetes to an obese person or a diabetic, on the grounds that a condition is not an identity. Style guides differ, so follow the publication.
- clinicalTwo sensesRelating to the direct treatment of patients — clinical trials, clinical evidence. In ordinary English it also means coldly unemotional: a clinical assessment of the marriage. The two rarely collide, but the second is always a judgement.
- stitchTwo unrelated sensesA surgical stitch closing a wound — plural stitches, and you have them out. Also a sudden sharp pain in the side from running, uncountable in that sense: I’ve got a stitch.
- ailmentMild · datedReserve it for minor complaints. It now sounds slightly of another era, and modern writing simply says illness, condition or names the problem.
- lifespan vs longevityEasily swappedLifespan is how long an individual or a species lives — a measurable figure. Longevity is long life as a quality, and it extends figuratively to careers and products: the longevity of the design.
- sanitationFormal · public healthThe systems for clean water and waste disposal, uncountable. Belongs to public-health and development writing; for a household you would say hygiene or drainage.
Sentences to try
Four frames from clinical writing. Check the technical meaning of each adjective.
- She was diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune condition.
- The outbreak became a pandemic within four months.
- The infection is contagious for roughly a week.
- He is now immune to the strain after the second vaccine.
Questions about medicine & health vocabulary
Does "chronic" mean severe?
No — in medicine, chronic means long-lasting or persistent, usually defined as continuing for more than three months. Its opposite is acute, which means sudden in onset and short in duration. Neither word describes severity: chronic mild eczema and acute appendicitis are both correctly labelled. Informal British English does use chronic to mean very bad, as in the service was chronic, but that sense would be a clear error in any academic, clinical or exam context.
What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic?
An epidemic is an unusual increase in cases of a disease within a particular area or population. A pandemic is an epidemic that has spread across multiple countries or continents, affecting a very large number of people. A third term, endemic, describes a disease that is permanently present at a fairly steady rate in a region — which is why a disease can move from pandemic to endemic without disappearing. An outbreak is the most local term of all.
What is the difference between contagious and infectious?
Infectious means caused by a micro-organism and able to spread from one host to another by any route, including insects, water and soil. Contagious is a subset: it means specifically transmitted by direct or indirect contact between people. Measles is both infectious and contagious; tetanus is infectious but not contagious, because it comes from soil rather than from another person. In everyday speech the two words are used interchangeably, but in medical writing the distinction holds.