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A patient is a person receiving medical care and/or treatment. The person may be waiting for this care or may be receiving it or may have already received it. There is considerable lack of agreement about the precise meaning of the term "patient." From the Latin verb "patior" meaning "to suffer" both in the sense of feeling pain and in the sense of forbearance. Thus, the two uses of the word "patient" -- as a noun denoting "someone who suffers" and as an adjective meaning "to bear with forbearance" -- stem from the same origin.