Dictionary

malpractice en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *(s)molos? Proto-Italic *malos Archaic Latin malos Latin malus Latin maleder. Old French mal- English mal- ▲ Middle English practice, practise, practize, practyseder. Middle English practice, practique, practyse English practice English malpractice From mal- + practice.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss.
2. (countable, uncountable) Improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person.
   • When such a breakdown occurs there must be a full examination of the corruption that has been committed, and the leaders involved in malpractices must be encouraged to give a full account of what took place. 2007, Stephen Prosser, To Be a Servant-Leader:
   • A national-security budget where we spend 20 times as much money on the military and intelligence agencies as we do on diplomacy, democracy promotion, and smart power, is foreign-policy malpractice in the modern world. 2019 October 7, Chris Murphy, “How to Make a Progressive Foreign Policy Actually Work”, in The Atlantic:
   • “It was malpractice on the side of Harvard’s lawyers not to pick up the phone and call the members of the antisemitism task force who they had been talking to for weeks,” said May Mailman, the White House senior policy strategist. 2025 April 19, Michael S. Schmidt, Michael C. Bender, quoting May Mailman, “Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

Translations (29)

cs nedbalost (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · ru должностно́е преступле́ние (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · fi hoitovirhe (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · hu jogellenes gyakorlat/cselekedet/viselkedés (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · pt negligência (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · nl wanpraktijk (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · fr négligence médicale (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · ga míchleachtas (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · de Kunstfehler (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · ru престу́пная хала́тность (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · de Behandlungsfehler (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · tr tıbbi hata (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · pl błąd w sztuce (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · es mala praxis (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · hu vétkes gondatlanság (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · ga míchleachtas (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · cs zneužití úřední moci (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · cmn 醫療過失 /医疗过失 (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · bg лекарска небрежност (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · fr méconduite (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · de Amtsmissbrauch (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · ms amalan salah (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · hu műhiba (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss) · pt negligência (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · hu foglalkozás körében elkövetett veszélyeztetés (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · hu mulasztás (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · cmn 職業不當行為 /职业不当行为 (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · fi epäeettinen toiminta (improper or unethical conduct by a professional or official person) · es mala praxis (the improper treatment of a patient by a physician that results in injury or loss)