healing

healing — noun

1. the body's natural work of repairing damaged skin, bone, or tissue after a cut,

1.nounB2
Definition

the body's natural work of repairing damaged skin, bone, or tissue after a cut, burn, broken arm, or other injury, so that the part returns to a working state.

Example

Doctors told Kwame that the healing of his broken leg would take at least eight weeks.

healing of + body part

Eating plenty of protein and vitamin C can help speed up the healing of a deep wound.

speed up the healing

Common collocations
  • the healing of a wound
  • speed up healing
  • slow down healing
  • natural healing
  • promote healing
Synonyms
  • recovery

    broader; covers any return to health, including illness as well as injury

  • mending

    more informal; everyday word for the same idea, often used about bones

Antonyms
  • deterioration

    the opposite — the body getting worse instead of better

Grammar Patterns

healing of + body part / wound

promote / speed up healing

Usage Note

Uncountable in this sense — never use 'a healing' or 'healings'. The most common framing is 'the healing of [a body part or wound]' or 'speed up / slow down healing'. Distinguish from sense 2: this sense is strictly about physical bodies and injuries.

Common Mistakes

The doctor checked the healings on my arm.
The doctor checked how the healing was going on my arm.
'healing' is uncountable; it has no plural.
I have a healing on my finger.
The cut on my finger is still healing.
for the actual mark you mean 'cut' or 'wound'; 'healing' is the process, not the mark.

2. the slow, often years-long process by which a person, family, or community recov

2.nounC1
Definition

the slow, often years-long process by which a person, family, or community recovers from grief, abuse, war, or another deeply painful experience, so that life starts to feel possible again.

Example

Therapy gave Christopher the safe space he needed to begin the long healing after his divorce.

healing after + painful event

True healing from childhood abuse can take many years and is rarely a straight line.

healing from + cause

Common collocations
  • emotional healing
  • spiritual healing
  • begin healing
  • process of healing
  • healing from trauma
Synonyms
  • recovery

    more clinical; common in mental-health writing for the same idea

  • closure

    narrower; a specific feeling of an event being finally finished, not the whole process

Grammar Patterns

healing after / from + difficult experience

begin / need healing

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense is about emotions, relationships, or whole communities, never the body. Often paired with 'after' or 'from' plus the painful event ('healing after the loss', 'healing from trauma'). Frequent in counselling, religious, and journalistic writing.

Common Mistakes

Healing of his sadness took two years.
Healing from his sadness took two years.
for the emotional sense use 'from' or 'after', not 'of'.
She is doing a healing for her past.
She is working on her healing from the past.
'doing a healing' sounds like a one-off ritual; the regular noun is uncountable.

healing — adjective

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four describe getting better after damage or illness, but they differ in scope. 'Healing' focuses on the body's quiet, day-by-day work of repairing tissue, bone, or skin — it can be felt before any test confirms it. 'Recovery' is broader: it covers healing plus the wider return to normal life, including getting back energy, mood, and routines. 'Mending' is everyday and often used about bones or simple wounds, with a slightly homely feel ('the bone is mending nicely'). 'Cure' is the narrowest and strongest — a final fix that removes the disease completely, used mainly for illnesses, not injuries. So Kabir's broken arm is healing day by day; he is in recovery for the next two months; the bone is mending well; but you would not say his arm is being 'cured'.

healing ↗recovery ↗mendingcure ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • healing process
  • healing power
  • healing properties
  • healing touch
  • healing time

Adverbs

  • fully healed
  • quickly healing
  • slowly healing
  • deeply healing

Phrases

  • the process of healing
  • begin the healing
  • healing takes time

Prepositions

  • healing from
  • healing of
  • healing after

Etymology

Proto-GermanicOld EnglishMiddle EnglishModern English

'Healing' comes from the Old English verb 'hǣlan', meaning 'to make whole, sound, or well'. The root is shared with 'whole', 'health', and 'hale', all built on a Germanic stem that meant 'whole, undamaged'. The same idea — that to heal is to bring something back to wholeness — runs through the noun, the adjective, and the verb. The emotional and spiritual senses ('healing of the heart', 'national healing') grew strongly in the 1800s and 1900s, but they sit naturally on the original meaning: a return from being broken to being whole.