Other forms: chiropractors
A chiropractor is a practitioner who treats the spine by manipulation. See a chiropractor, a registered chiropractor, the chiropractor adjusted his back.
In Britain the title is protected by law and practitioners must register, which surprises people on both sides of the argument about it. The evidence supports it for some lower back pain and not for the wider claims once made. The Greek means done by hand.
1nounchiropractorA practitioner who treats the spine by manipulation.
“After weeks of back pain, she went to a chiropractor who worked on her spine.”
chiropractor is a practitioner.
From Greek cheir, a hand, plus praxis, action. The word was coined in America in 1895.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰes-
Ancient Greek
χείρ — hand
English, today
chiropractor
Built from
From Ancient Greek χείρ (“hand”) + πρᾶξις (“action, activity, practice”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA