Medicinal means having the power to heal, cure, or improve health. When doctors prescribe medicinal treatments, they're giving you something designed to make you better: antibiotics fight infections, medicinal creams soothe rashes, and cough syrup eases throat irritation.

Medicinal plants like aloe vera, ginger, and chamomile have been used for thousands of years to treat various ailments. Indigenous peoples around the world developed extensive knowledge of which leaves, roots, and flowers had medicinal properties long before modern pharmacies existed.

You might hear about medicinal herbs in tea, medicinal compounds in pills, or even medicinal baths that help sore muscles recover. Scientists often study traditional medicinal remedies to understand which ones actually work and why. Some turn out to be extremely effective: aspirin was originally developed from a chemical found in willow bark, a medicinal plant.

The word can also describe something's healing quality more generally. Someone might joke about the “medicinal properties” of chicken soup when you're sick, or describe how a good laugh has medicinal effects on stress, even though neither is technically medicine.