Glossary
ambulatory
Ambulatory means able to walk, or a care setting that does not require an overnight stay.
Ambulatory means able to walk — a patient who is ambulatory can move about — and the same word describes care given without admission, as in an ambulatory clinic or ambulatory surgery. The two senses meet at the idea of not being confined: to a bed, in the first case, and to a hospital, in the second. A passage about recovery often uses it as a milestone, because a patient described as ambulatory is being measured against one who is not, and the question usually asks what changed. Distinguish it from mobile, which is about movement in general rather than about whether the person can bear weight and walk.
Taught in
Related terms
- word part — A word part is a prefix, root, suffix or combining vowel — one of the pieces a medical word is built from.
- context clue — A context clue is information in the sentence around an unknown word that narrows what the word means — a definition, a restatement, a contrast, an example, a consequence or the general sense.
Source: MedlinePlus (US National Library of Medicine) consumer guidance on understanding medical words, which the vocabulary guide follows for the prefix, root, suffix and combining-vowel system. US federal government material, not subject to copyright in the United States. Every definition and example above was written for this course in our own words; no dictionary or glossary text is reproduced. (MedlinePlus accessed 2026-10-27; definitions written 2026-10-27)