physician
phy·si·cian/fəˈzɪʃən/noun
physician is spelled P-H-Y-S-I-C-I-A-N, 3 syllables: phy·si·cian. The wrong spelling people search most is physican: about 320 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 26 of all searches for the word. Physician is a noun meaning “A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a…”. The plural of physician is physicians.
How many letters and syllables are in physician?
| Letters | 9: P-H-Y-S-I-C-I-A-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: phy·si·cian |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, physican, about 320 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell physician?
Physician is spelled P-H-Y-S-I-C-I-A-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 26 of the searches for physician in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is physician?
Physician appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce physician?
- US /fəˈzɪʃən/
- UK /fɪˈzɪʃn̩/
Physician has 3 syllables, split phy·si·cian in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-physician.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with physician?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as physician from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃən/):
- position
- competition
- opposition
- permission
- composition
- acquisition
- coalition
- politician
- admission
- nutrition
- expedition
- ambition
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of physician
- physicians plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does physician mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A practitioner of physic, i.e. a specialist in internal medicine, especially as opposed to a surgeon; a practitioner who treats with medication rather than with surgery.
- 2
A medical doctor trained in human medicine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Physician in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | médecin, docteur, docteure, doctoresse , femme médecin |
| German | Arzt, Ärztin, Mediziner, Medizinerin, Doktor, Doktorin |
| Portuguese | doutor, médico , doutora, médica |
| Spanish | médico, facultativo , médica, doctora |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does physician come from?
From Middle English fisicien, from Old French fisicïen (“physician”) (modern French physicien (“physicist”)), from fisique (“art of healing”), from Latin physica (“natural science”), from Ancient Greek φυσική ἐπιστήμη (phusikḗ epistḗmē, “knowledge of nature”), from φυσικός (phusikós, “pertaining to nature”). Displaced native Middle English læche, leche, archaic English leech (“physician”). Morphologically physic + -ian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).