Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A method of treating disease with remedies that produce effects different from those caused by the disease itself.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In medicine, a therapeutic method characterized by the use of agents producing effects different from the symptoms of the disease treated. See homeopathy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun That system of medical practice which aims to combat disease by the use of remedies which produce effects different from those produced by the special disease treated; -- a term invented by Hahnemann to designate the ordinary practice, as opposed to homeopathy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable traditional medicine
  • noun countable a traditional medical method or treatment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the usual method of treating disease with remedies that produce effects differing from those produced by the disease itself

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Allopathie : Greek allos, other; see allo– + Greek -patheia, suffering; see –pathy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

allo- + -pathy – term coined by Samuel Hahnemann (the founder of homeopathy) as a pejorative term to indicate medicine that in his opinion treated something "other than" the disharmony that caused the disease. James C. Whorton – Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America

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