sanatorium

noun

san·​a·​to·​ri·​um ˌsa-nə-ˈtȯr-ē-əm 

variants or sanitarium

ˌsa-nə-ˈter-ē-əm 

or less commonly sanitorium

ˌsa-nə-ˈtȯr-ē-əm 

plural sanatoriums or sanatoria ˌsa-nə-ˈtȯr-ē-ə  or sanitariums or sanitaria ˌsa-nə-ˈter-ē-ə  also sanitoriums or sanitoria ˌsa-nə-ˈtȯr-ē-ə 

1

: an establishment or facility offering usually long-term medical care or treatment: such as

a

: an establishment that provides therapy typically involving specific regimens (such as special diet, fresh air, or daily exercise) for treatment or rehabilitation

I contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and found myself flat on my back in a sanatorium in the Adirondack Mountains …

—Walker Percy

He wanted to kick the drugs, and several times in 1966 and 1967 he went to a sanitarium outside Paris and took a "sleeping cure"—a regimen of tranquillizers and bed rest.

—Ingrid Sischy

b

: a facility treating individuals with mental or emotional disorders

He suffered his first nervous breakdown in November of 1947 … and was committed to a Long Island sanatorium for almost a year.

—Francis Davis

Feodora was in and out of sanatoria until she committed suicide in 1945.

—Judy Bachrach

… we read of Freud's twice-a-day visits to the sanitarium where his hysterical patient was staying …

—Janet Malcolm

c

: an institution for rest and recuperation

It was the same sanitarium where he recovered from a quintuple heart bypass operation in 1996.

—Fred Coleman

2

: an establishment catering to individuals seeking to improve or maintain good health : a health resort

So all we get is a luxe bustling sanitarium with people concentrating on vegetarian diets and their colons.

—Stanley Kauffmann

Examples of sanatorium in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Forestis, Dolomites, Italy The roots of Forestis reach back to the 1910s, when the Austro-Hungarian monarchy began building a healing sanatorium amid the thick, virginal forest and mountain views of the Dolomites in northeastern Italy, now a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. —Kathryn Romeyn, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 June 2024

One of Franz Kafka’s characteristic lamentations of writer’s block, captured in a handwritten letter from a sanatorium, is heading to the auction block. —Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2024

Royals, including Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, came to its sanatoriums to take the waters. —Gisela Williams, Travel + Leisure, 12 May 2024

He was taken a thousand miles south to a TB sanatorium in Hamilton, Ontario, where the teen boy – used to roaming land and sea to hunt ptarmigan, seals and narwhal – was confined to a bed, not allowed to get up and walk. —Melody Schreiber, NPR, 2 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

sanatorium from Late Latin sānātōrius (adjective) "healing" (from Latin sānāre "to cure, restore to health"—derivative of sānus "sound, healthy," of uncertain origin— + -tōrius, deverbal adjective suffix) + -orium; sanitarium from Latin sānitās "health, soundness of mind" + -arium — more at sanity

First Known Use

1839, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

sanatorium

noun

san·​a·​to·​ri·​um ˌsan-ə-ˈtōr-ē-əm 

-ˈtȯr-

plural sanatoriums or sanatoria -ē-ə 

: an establishment for the care and treatment especially of people recovering from illness or having a disease likely to last a long time

called also sanitarium

Medical Definition

sanatorium

noun

san·​a·​to·​ri·​um ˌsan-ə-ˈtōr-ē-əm, -ˈtȯr- 

plural sanatoriums or sanatoria -ē-ə 

1

: an establishment that provides therapy combined with a regimen (as of diet and exercise) for treatment or rehabilitation

2

a

: an institution for rest and recuperation (as of convalescents)

b

: an establishment for the treatment of the chronically ill

a tuberculosis sanatorium