Ho*me*op"a*thy (?), n. [Gr. &?; likeness of condition or feeling; &?; like (fr. &?; same; cf. Same) + &?; to suffer: cf. F. homéopathie. See Pathos.] (Med.) The art of curing, founded on resemblances; the theory and its practice that disease is cured (tuto, cito, et jucunde) by remedies which produce on a healthy person effects similar to the symptoms of the complaint under which the patient suffers, the remedies being usually administered in minute doses. This system was founded by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, and is opposed to allopathy, or heteropathy. [Written also homœopathy.]

• (medicine) a system of treating diseases with small amounts of substances which, in larger amounts, would produce the observed symptoms