Phrase guide

physician, heal thyself

proverb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

proverb

Meaning 1

One should attend to one's own flaws or defects before presuming to advise others about theirs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: doctor, heal thyself

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Calque of Ancient Greek ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν (iatré, therápeuson seautón) and Latin medice, cūrā tē ipsum, from Luke 4:23.

Across languages

Translations

24 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: أَيُّهَا ٱلطَّبِيبُ ٱشْفِ نَفْسَكَ (ʔayyuhā ṭ-ṭabību šfi nafsaka) — Translations
  • Arabic: يَا طَبِيبُ طُبَّ لِنَفْسِكَ (yā ṭabību ṭubba linafsika) — Translations
  • Catalan: metge, cura't a tu mateix — Translations
  • Chinese Mandarin: 醫生,你醫治自己罷 /医生 — Translations
  • Chinese Mandarin: 你医治自己罢 (yīshēng, nǐ yīzhì zìjǐ bà) — Translations
  • Dutch: medicijnmeester, genees uzelven — Translations
  • Dutch: geneesheer, genees uzelf — Translations
  • Finnish: parantaja, paranna itsesi — Translations
  • French: médecin, guéris-toi toi-même — Translations
  • German: Arzt, hilf dir selber — Translations
  • German: Arzt, heile dich selbst — Translations
  • Ancient Greek: ἰατρέ, θεράπευσον σεαυτόν (iatré, therápeuson seautón) — Translations
  • Hebrew: אָסְיָא אַסִּי חִגַּרְתָּךְ (ásya así ẖigartách) — Translations
  • Italian: medico, cura te stesso — Translations
  • Japanese: 医者の不養生 (isha no fuyōjō) — Translations
  • Latin: medice, cura te ispum — Translations
  • Old Church Slavonic: врачꙋ̀, и҆сцѣли́сѧ са́мъ (vračù, iscělísę sámŭ) — Translations
  • Polish: lekarzu, lecz się sam — Translations
  • Polish: lekarzu, ulecz samego siebie — Translations
  • Portuguese: médico, cura-te a ti mesmo — Translations
  • Russian: вра́чу, исцели́ся сам (vráču, iscelísja sam) — Translations
  • Spanish: médico, cúrate a ti mismo — Translations
  • Swedish: läkare, bota dig själv — Translations
  • Welsh: y meddyg, iachâ di dy hun — Translations