therapy

noun

ther·a·py | \ ˈther-ə-pē

plural therapies

Definition of therapy

1 : therapeutic medical treatment of impairment, injury, disease, or disorder The number of new patients treated for end-stage renal disease … with dialysis or renal transplantation has continued to rise exponentially with an 8.4% annualized growth rate reaching more than 160,000 patients undergoing therapy in the United States in 1989.— Friedrich K. Port — see also art therapy, chelation therapy, chemotherapy, chemotherapy, gene therapy, hormone therapy, music therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, shock therapy, speech therapy

2 : psychotherapy Furthermore, the psychotherapist knows that all actions in therapy are messages that need be decoded and understood regardless of the 'language' the patient uses.— Bruno Bettelheim and Alvin A. Rosenfeld

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Examples of therapy in a Sentence

He is undergoing cancer therapy. talking over my problem with you has been good therapy

Recent Examples on the Web

Her students had been drawing decapitations and hangings as part of their art therapy. — Paul Salopek, National Geographic, "A storyteller chronicles the mass migrations that define our age," 17 July 2019 The company is now working to get its therapy into experimental human testing. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "UCSD to send ‘mini-brains’ to International Space Station for neural disease research," 7 July 2019 Officer Ortega met with the reportee who advised the decedent was a cancer patient going through her chemo therapy. — Houston Chronicle, "Bellaire Police Department weekly report," 1 July 2019 After a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration, Ovid is taking its therapy for the debilitating Angelman syndrome into a late-stage trial, one that will use the same definition of success employed in a prior study. — Damian Garde, BostonGlobe.com, "Ovid begins late-stage trial for rare disease treatment, defying Wall Street’s expectations," 27 June 2019 During a fairly passive aggressive couple’s therapy session between Madeline and Ed, Dr. Reisman theorizes about what led Madeline to cheat. — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, "This Big Little Lies Revelation Explains The Secret Behind Madeline's Failed Marriages," 25 June 2019 By 2023, Amicus expects that its therapies will treat 5,000 patients and generate $1 billion in global sales. — Stephen Hudak, orlandosentinel.com, "Orange County, Orlando grant tax breaks to biotech firm promising to bring high-wage jobs and a quest to cure rare diseases to Lake Nona’s Medical City," 20 June 2019 Most sources interviewed for the story were eager to vent, with interviews often turning into impromptu therapy sessions. — Kalyn Kahler, SI.com, "The Rise of the Snowplow Sports Parents," 19 June 2019 The sensation reminded him of the cigarettes his young addicted patients clutched in their therapy sessions, the fire edging dangerously close to their trembling fingertips. — Corinne Purtill, Quartz at Work, "A simple strategy helps doctors fight burnout. Could it work for the rest of us?," 5 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'therapy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.