psychiatry
gb/saɪkˈaɪətɹi/ us/saɪkˈaɪətɹi/
B2
English
~ 9700
Senses
0 senses
Noun
technical
B2
entity
1
medical treatment of mental illness
A field of medicine that focuses on finding and treating problems with a person’s mind, emotions, and behavior.
Usage pattern:
[someone] works in psychiatry
Common mistake:
Learners often confuse "psychiatry" (the medical field) with "psychology" (the scientific study of the mind, not necessarily medical). Another mistake is using it like a countable noun, e.g., *"He is a psychiatry"* instead of "He works in psychiatry" or "He is a psychiatrist." Learners may also say *"I went to psychiatry"* when they should say "I went to a psychiatrist" or "I went to the psychiatry department."
Synonyms
psychological medicine (A more formal or older term that stresses the link between medicine and mental processes; less common in everyday use.)
|
mental health medicine (Informal descriptive phrase; broader and less precise than the standard technical term "psychiatry".)
Antonyms
general medicine (Focuses mainly on physical illnesses, contrasting with psychiatry’s focus on mental and emotional disorders.)
Collocations
clinical psychiatry
|child psychiatry
|forensic psychiatry
|modern psychiatry
|the practice of psychiatry
Themes
health
|science
|medicine
|mental_health
|core_vocabulary
Examples
- She decided to specialize in psychiatry after working on a mental health helpline.
- Modern psychiatry combines medication with different forms of psychotherapy.
- The hospital is known for its strong psychiatry department.
- Advances in psychiatry have changed how society understands depression.
- He is writing a textbook on cultural issues in psychiatry.
Learner examples
- He studies psychiatry at university.
- My sister works in psychiatry at a large hospital.
- Psychiatry helps people with serious mental health problems.
- I want to learn more about psychiatry and how it treats depression.
- Psychiatry is different from psychology because it is a part of medicine.
Grammar
Dictionary form
psychiatry
IPA
GB/saɪkˈaɪətɹi/
US/saɪkˈaɪətɹi/
Syllables & stress
psy - chi - atry (3 syllables)
Stress on 2nd syllable (chi)
Word forms
Noun
- Base: psychiatry
- Plural: psychiatries, psychiatry
Word family
Forms
psychiatries
noun
Core family
psychiatrist
noun B2
psychiatric
adjective B2
Advanced or less common
psychiatrically
adverb
Expressions
No expressions linked to this entry yet.