Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Prescribe for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "Prescribe" — verb, pronounced /prɪˈskraɪb/, with the stress on "scribe".
Narrator: To prescribe means to say officially what medicine or treatment someone should have.
Narrator: In plain English, doctors prescribe medicine.
Narrator: It comes from the Latin praescribere, to write before.
Narrator: A common collocation is "prescribe antibiotics", which describes a doctor ordering them.
Narrator: It differs from "proscribe", which means to forbid, almost the opposite.
Narrator: In a second sense, rules or laws prescribe what must be done.
Narrator: Medicine, law, education and government all rely on the word.
Narrator: So remember: to prescribe is to write what must be done.
Speaker A: Can a pharmacist prescribe medicine?
Speaker B: Some can, with training! PRESCRIBE comes from the Latin for writing beforehand.
Speaker A: And laws prescribe things too?
Speaker B: Yes, they set out rules.
Speaker A: Example sentences?
Speaker B: "The GP prescribed painkillers", medicine. "Take the dose prescribed", instructions. "The law prescribes a fine", a rule.
Speaker A: Common mistakes?
Speaker B: Do not confuse prescribe with proscribe, which means to ban.
Speaker A: Close relatives?
Speaker B: Recommend is its gentle cousin, order is its twin, and specify is the formal alternative, but prescribe keeps its clinical charm!
Speaker B: Let's use "prescribe" in AI prompts — useful for pharmacy apps and compliance tools.
Speaker A: How would pharmacy apps use it?
Speaker B: Remind safely.
Prompt: Build a reminder feature that alerts users to take each medicine at the times their doctor prescribed.
Speaker A: And compliance tools?
Speaker B: Check against rules.
Prompt: Check this report against the format prescribed by the regulator and list any missing sections.
Speaker A: Could it help education?
Speaker B: Yes, explaining roles.
Prompt: Explain which UK healthcare professionals can prescribe medicines, in plain English.
Speaker A: One more?
Speaker B: Language checking.
Prompt: Flag any use of proscribe that should be prescribe in these medical notes.
Prescribe — meaning in Arabic & definition More P courses GL Dictionary