What does medical mean?
Word: Medical
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Medical means connected with doctors and their work, or with the study of medicine.
How do you spell medical?
Syllables: med - i - cal
Tricky part: The ending sounds like 'kul' but is spelt cal, not cle or kal. Children who think of words such as article often write medicle.
Watch out for: medicle, medikal, medicel
Memory tip: It finishes just like magical and tropical: the last three letters are c, a, l.
Medical in a sentence
Example 1: My cousin is in her second year at a medical college in Pune.
Example 2: Every player had a quick medical check-up before the district football camp.
Example 3: The village got its first medical van, which visits on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Fun Fact
Medical comes from the Latin medicus, meaning a doctor, the same root that gives us medicine and medic.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Probe
Fill both blanks of one of these words with 'e' and 'i', in that order. Which option gives the meaning of that word?
1. m__d__cal 2. m__s__cal 3. c__n__cal 4. l__g__cal
a) sensible and based on clear reasoning
b) shaped like a cone
c) to do with keeping people's bodies healthy
d) to do with music or good at playing it
Show answer
c) to do with keeping people's bodies healthy. With e and i the first word becomes medical; musical, conical and logical need other vowels.
Spell Spies
Choose the misspelt word/s in the given sentence:
Our school held a free medical camp, and a nurse checked the hieght and wieght of every child in the class.
a) medical and wieght
b) hieght and wieght
c) only wieght
d) only hieght
Show answer
b) hieght and wieght. Height and weight both put e before i; medical is spelt correctly.
Sound Check
In which word is 'c' pronounced differently?
a) critical
b) comical
c) medicine
d) medical
Show answer
c) medicine. In medicine the c comes before i and turns soft, like an s; in the other three every c is hard, like k.
Spellacadabra
Choose the misspelt word:
a) physical
b) vertical
c) meddical
d) radical
Show answer
c) meddical. Radical, physical and vertical are spelt correctly; the doctor's word has only one d.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Where would you expect to meet medical students?
a) in a music room
b) in a bakery kitchen
c) at a teaching hospital
d) at a cricket ground
Show answer
c) at a teaching hospital
2. A 'medical kit' carried on a school trip holds things such as ___.
a) plasters and cotton wool
b) pencils and erasers
c) maps and compasses
d) snacks and juice boxes
Show answer
a) plasters and cotton wool
