medicine
n. C / Un. a substance you take to treat an illness or feel better. It can also mean the study of how to keep people healthy and fix injuries.
n. a substance used in treating disease or relieving pain; also the science and practice of the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.
You should take your medicine after you eat breakfast.
The doctor prescribed a liquid medicine to help soothe her cough and lower her fever.
Advances in modern medicine have significantly increased life expectancy by eradicating diseases that were once considered fatal to the general population.
From Middle English medicin, from Middle French medicine, from Old French medecine, from Latin medicīna (“the healing art, medicine, a physician's shop, a remedy, medicine”), feminine of medicīnus (“of or belonging to physic or surgery, or to a physician or surgeon”), from medicus (“a physician, surgeon”). The extended sense of "Indigenous magic" is a calque of Ojibwe mashkiki (“medicine”) or mide (or cognates in related languages) when used in compounds such as Grand Medicine Society, medicine lodge, medicine dance, medicine bag, medicine wheel, medicine man, Medicine Line, and bad medicine or place names such as Medicine Hat, Medicine Creek, etc.
Uncountable when referring to the field of study; both countable and uncountable when referring to a specific drug or treatment.
I am studying the medicineI am studying medicineWhen referring to the academic field or profession, the noun is uncountable and does not take a definite article.