Medical English Vocabulary: a new app for doctors and nurses

Medical English Vocabulary: a new app for doctors and nurses

onemoreword now has a separate app — Medical English Vocabulary. It uses the same learning principle as the main app, but the entire vocabulary is built around clinical work: seeing patients, the ward, the operating theatre, intensive care, documentation.

The app is already available on Google Play: Medical English Vocabulary.

Why a separate app rather than a topic inside the main one

General English vocabulary runs out exactly where the shift begins. Someone can speak comfortably about travel and office work — and freeze when they have to describe the character of a pain, explain how to prepare for a procedure, or read a colleague's note in the chart.

Medical English is not "difficult words". It is a different set of words and different turns of phrase that ordinary courses almost never cover. So instead of adding a couple of themed decks to the main app, we built a separate product with its own vocabulary and its own examples.

Not a dictionary, but a learning system

There are plenty of medical dictionaries and reference books, and they solve a different problem: you look up a term — and close the app. A day later the word is gone.

The logic here is different. The app decides what to show you and when, so the word stays in active use:

• a word comes back shortly before the moment you would forget it — that is the principle of spaced repetition;
• the algorithm adapts to you: what you recall confidently appears less often, difficult words more often;
• a session takes a few minutes and genuinely fits into a break.

The point is not to "finish" the vocabulary, but to stop translating in your head and recall the right word straight away.

What is inside

We did not try to cover all medical terminology — there are tens of thousands of terms, and most of them never come up in conversation. The app is built on high-frequency vocabulary that is actually spoken on shift:

1. Core clinical vocabulary — shared by doctors and nurses;
2. Symptoms, history taking and talking to patients;
3. Diagnosis, treatment and procedures;
4. Anatomy, body systems and the basics of pharmacology;
5. The ward, the theatre, the emergency department, intensive care;
6. Everyday teamwork English — everything around the treatment itself: handovers, agreeing on a plan, documentation.

Each word comes as a flashcard rather than a bare list entry: an English definition, a translation into your language, transcription, audio pronunciation, and three example sentences from real clinical situations. Plus a picture — visual association speeds up recall noticeably.

Who it is for

• Nurses preparing for NCLEX or OET and applying to the NHS;
• Doctors preparing for USMLE, PLAB or OET;
• Students on medical and nursing programmes;
• Pharmacists, dentists, midwives, paramedics and care staff;
• Anyone relocating to work in an English-speaking country — the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, the Gulf;
• Anyone who knows medicine but freezes when the same thing has to be said in English.

A note on exams: the app does not replace preparation for OET, NCLEX or USMLE and is not a course. It covers one specific part of that preparation — the vocabulary that should come back automatically by exam day, without pausing to translate.

The interface speaks your language

Learning English through English is hard while your English is still the thing you are working on. So the app speaks to you in a language you already know: German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian, Turkish and Polish. It is not only the menu items that are translated, but every word and every example sentence.

How to get it

The app is available on Google Play: Medical English Vocabulary. Android only for now — there is no iOS version.

The model is the same as in the main app: you can start for free, and Premium unlocks full access — a monthly, yearly or two-year subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase.

Pick your interface language, open the first deck — and your first twenty medical words will take about ten minutes.

Important

This app is not a medical resource. The content is for learning medical English only and must not be used for medical education, diagnosis or treatment. It is an independent study tool: it is not affiliated with, endorsed by or certified by the owners of the OET, NCLEX, USMLE, PLAB or IELTS examinations, and it is not connected with the NHS.

Petr Lukovkin, onemoreword team May 18, 2026