functional medicine

noun

A form of alternative medicine; its many critics have asserted that it is the same as integrative medicine or is an especially pernicious subset thereof; many consider all of these things pseudoscientific (for example, with deliberately vague and unfalsifiable concepts) and in some cases even quackery.

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Meanings

nounfunctional medicine (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA form of alternative medicine; its many critics have asserted that it is the same as integrative medicine or is an especially pernicious subset thereof; many consider all of these things pseudoscientific (for example, with deliberately vague and unfalsifiable concepts) and in some cases even quackery.

Origin

Created by charismatic leaders in the 1990s; more in Wikipedia at functional medicine.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

functional medicine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20medicine

MLA

“functional medicine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20medicine. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “functional medicine,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20medicine.

Source: functional medicine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.