Hospitalization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of entering a medical establishment for therapeutic care involves receiving designated observation or treatment for health concerns
2. The process of admitting a person into a healthcare facility to receive medical treatment
3. The act of placing an individual under inpatient care for diagnosis or therapy within a medical institution

Etymology: "Hospitalization" is formed from "hospitalize" plus the suffix "-ation," which turns a verb into a noun naming the act or process. "Hospitalize" itself is built on "hospital," so the word is a noun of action: the process of putting someone into a hospital, or the stay that follows. The suffix does the grammatical work, while the core meaning stays with the hospital. The word is also a piecewise doublet of "hotelization," meaning the two share a common formation pattern and have split into different meanings through their separate histories. Both come from the same pattern of verb plus "-ation," with "hotel" and "hospital" supplying different senses. Where "hotel" and "hospital" once shared a root in Latin "hospes" (guest or host), the modern words have diverged, one for lodging and the other for medical care.

Synonyms: admission, treatment, care, inpatient care, hospital stay

Antonyms: discharge, release, freedom, liberation, independence