heal

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːl
• Homophones: heel, he'll, hill, (in some accents)

Etymology 1

From Middle English helen, hilen, from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”), from Proto-Germanic *helaną (“to hide, stash”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate with Scots heal (“to cover, hide, conceal, keep secret”), Dutch helen (“to conceal”), German heilen (“to conceal”), Latin cēlō (“conceal”). Related to hole, hull.

Alternative forms

• hele, heel
• heil (Scotland)

Verb

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past hole or healed, past participle holen or healed)

1. (transitive, obsolete or dialectal) To hide; conceal; keep secret.
2. (transitive) To cover, as for protection.

Etymology 2

From Middle English helen, from Old English hǣlan (“to heal, cure, save, greet, salute”), from Proto-Germanic *hailijaną (“to heal, make whole, save”), from Proto-Indo-European *koil- (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Scots hale, hail (“to heal”), Eastern Frisian heila, heilen (“to heal”), Dutch helen (“to heal”), German heilen (“to heal”), Swedish hela (“to heal”). More at whole.

Verb

heal (third-person singular simple present heals or (archaic) healeth, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

1. (transitive) To make better; to revive, recover, or cure.

   This band-aid will heal your cut.

2. (intransitive) To become better.

   Band-aids allow cuts to heal.

Synonyms

• (make better): cure
• (become better): get better, recover

Derived terms

healable healand, Healand

healer

health

Translations

make better

• Albanian: shëroj (sq), kuroj (sq)
• Aromanian: vindic (rup)
• Dalmatian: medcur
• Dutch: genezen (nl), helen (nl), beter maken (nl)
• Finnish: parantaa (fi)
• French: guérir (fr), assainir (fr)
• Italian: guarire (it), sanare (it)
• Latin: sano (la), medico (la), curo (la), medeor (la), salvo (la)
• Luxembourgish: heelen (lb)
• Norwegian: hele (no), kurere (no), helbrede (no)

• Polish: uzdrowić (pl)
• Portuguese: curar (pt), sanar (pt)
• Quechua: allinyachiy (qu)
• Romanian: vindeca (ro)
• Russian: лечить (ru) (l'ečít') impf., вылечить (ru) (výl'ečit') pf., излечить (ru) (izl'ečít') pf.; исцелять (ru) (iscel'át') impf., исцелить (ru) (iscel'ít') pf.
• Serbo-Croatian: izliječiti (sh)
• Spanish: curar (es), sanar (es)
• Yiddish: היילן (yi) (heyln)

become better

• Finnish: parantua (fi)
• Hebrew: השתפר (he) (hishtapér)
• Latin: corrigo (la)
• Luxembourgish: heelen (lb)

• Norwegian: bli frisk (no)
• Portuguese: sarar (pt)
• Russian: заживать (ru) (zaživát') impf., зажить (ru) (zažít') pf.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Persian: شفا دادن، شفا یافتن، بهبود پیدا کردن، بهبود یافتن، خوب شدن
• Catalan: guarir
• Chinese: 痊癒/痊愈 (quanyu), 治癒/治愈 (zhiyu), 癒合/愈合 (yuhe)
• Czech: hojit
• Dutch: helen, genezen
• French: guérir, traiter
• German: heilen
• Greek: θεραπεύω

• Italian: guarire
• Japanese: 治す (なおす, naosu), 治る (なおる, naoru), 癒す (いやす, iyasu), 癒える (いえる, ieru) 治療する (ちりょうする, chiryou suru), 治癒する (ちゆする, chiyu suru)
• Spanish: curar

Noun

heal (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) health

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

Anagrams

• hale, Hale
• Leah

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West Frisian

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hɪːl/

Adjective

heal

1. half