Homeopathy glossary

A worsening of symptoms. In classical homeopathic literature, 'homeopathic aggravation' describes a temporary worsening attributed to a remedy and interpreted as preceding improvement. Worsening must not be assumed to signal benefit: adverse effects and disease progression require clinical assessment.

See: /blog/homeopathic-potency-selection-guide

In historical homeopathic relationship tables, a remedy or substance said to counter the attributed action of another remedy; camphor and coffee often appear in these notes. This meaning is distinct from a medically established antidote for poisoning, and the tables do not establish an effective response to an adverse reaction.

See: /materia-medica/boericke

The 1905 repertory in which C. M. Boger reorganised and expanded Boenninghausen's work. It is built for the Boenninghausen method: complete symptoms assembled from location, sensation, modality and concomitant, with modalities generalised across the whole case rather than tied to one part.

See: /blog/boenninghausen-boger-repertory-method

The event or exposure after which the complaint began, such as grief, fright, cold wet weather, loss of fluids or an injury. Repertories index causations under rubrics such as 'ailments from', and a clear causation often ranks above physical symptoms in the analysis.

See: /blog/homeopathic-case-taking-guide

A symptom that is striking, singular, uncommon and peculiar to the patient rather than common to the disease, as described in paragraph 153 of the Organon. Characteristic symptoms carry the most weight in repertorisation because they point to a small number of remedies.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

A repertory arranged by named conditions and clinical states rather than by the anatomical and functional chapters of Kent. Boericke's Clinical Repertory, the index bound with his Pocket Manual, is the best known; it is used for quick therapeutic checks, then confirmed in a full repertory.

See: /blog/boericke-clinical-repertory-guide

A historical homeopathic label for a remedy reported to follow another favourably or complete its attributed action. Classical materia medicas record these relationships in their remedy entries; the listings describe prescribing traditions, not demonstrated treatment sequences.

See: /materia-medica/boericke

A symptom that occurs alongside the main complaint without an obvious connection to it, such as a headache that comes with nausea, or a fever with thirstlessness. In the Boenninghausen method the concomitant is one of the four elements of a complete symptom and is often decisive.

See: /blog/boenninghausen-boger-repertory-method

The patient's whole make-up: temperament, build, reactions to heat, cold, weather and food, and characteristic mental state. A constitutional remedy is the one whose picture matches this totality rather than the presenting acute complaint alone.

See: /blog/top-homeopathic-remedies-student-guide

A pointer from one rubric to another that covers the same or a related idea under different wording, printed in the repertory as 'see' or 'compare'. Following cross-references is how a practitioner finds the rubric that actually holds the remedies for a symptom.

See: /blog/kent-repertory-guide-structure-online

The process of preparing a remedy by serial dilution with succussion (vigorous shaking) at each step, or by trituration for insoluble substances. Hahnemann held that the process develops the medicinal power of the substance; the number of steps gives the potency.

See: /blog/homeopathic-potency-selection-guide

A rubric chosen at the start of a repertorisation because the practitioner is confident every plausible remedy must appear in it, typically a strong general or a striking mental symptom. Only remedies in that rubric are considered further, which shortens the analysis but fails if the rubric is chosen carelessly.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

Symptoms that belong to the whole patient rather than to one part: reactions to heat and cold, weather, time of day, sleep, food desires and aversions, thirst, perspiration and energy. Kent ranked generals above particulars, so a strong general outweighs several local symptoms in the analysis.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

The weight an editor assigns a remedy within a rubric, shown by different typefaces. Kent uses three grades, commonly displayed as plain type, italics and bold capitals; Murphy's Repertory uses four. Grades encode the source's assessment of reported observations and may be combined in a repertorisation chart; they are not measures of clinical trial evidence or proven efficacy.

See: /blog/kent-repertory-guide-structure-online

A historical homeopathic rule attributed to Constantine Hering: recovery is said to proceed from above downwards, from within outwards and in the reverse order of symptoms' appearance. Homeopathic authors use it to interpret case follow-up, but these patterns are not established clinical criteria for recovery and must not be used to dismiss worsening symptoms.

See: /blog/herings-law-direction-of-cure-guide

A historical materia medica label for remedies an author advises against giving in sequence because they are said to interfere with one another's action. It records a reported homeopathic relationship, not an established drug interaction; relationship notes should be read in the context of their named source.

See: /materia-medica/boericke

Treatment with a potentised preparation of the very substance that caused the complaint, such as a potency of a pollen for hay fever from that pollen. It differs from homeopathy proper, which prescribes on similarity of the whole symptom picture, though the two overlap in the use of nosodes.

See: /blog/nosodes-in-homeopathy-guide

A symptom so characteristic of a remedy that it identifies it: Bryonia's aggravation from the slightest motion, Pulsatilla's thirstlessness, Arsenicum's restless anxiety after midnight. Allen's Keynotes and Nash's Leaders are the classic collections; keynotes confirm a choice, they do not replace the totality.

See: /materia-medica

Hahnemann's proposed principle that a substance associated with symptoms in a healthy person could treat similar symptoms in someone who is ill, often summarised as 'like cures like'. Set out in the Organon, it is a foundational homeopathic doctrine rather than an established therapeutic law; the closest matching remedy is called the similimum.

See: /blog/organon-of-medicine-guide

The fifty-millesimal preparation scale introduced in the sixth edition of Hahnemann's Organon, conventionally described as 1:50,000 per step. The labels LM1, LM2 or Q1, Q2 identify steps on that scale. They do not establish a gentler action, clinical benefit or safety.

See: /blog/lm-q-potencies-guide

A remedy-by-remedy reference compiling reported symptoms from homeopathic provings, toxicological accounts and clinical case observations, with modalities and remedy relationships. Boericke, Clarke, Kent, Allen and Hering wrote the classics; repertories index associations drawn from this literature. These records do not by themselves demonstrate treatment efficacy.

See: /materia-medica

The patient's characteristic emotional and intellectual state: fears, moods, reactions to consolation or contradiction, memory, delusions. Kent's Repertory opens with the Mind chapter because, in his method, a clear mental symptom outranks the physical particulars.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

Hahnemann's proposed explanation of chronic illness in The Chronic Diseases, using categories he called psora, sycosis and syphilis; later authors added others, including tubercular and cancer miasms. These are historical homeopathic constructs, not validated causes of chronic disease or modern diagnoses of infection.

See: /blog/miasms-psora-sycosis-syphilis-guide

A condition that makes a symptom better or worse: time of day, temperature, weather, motion, position, pressure, eating, company. Modalities separate remedies that share a symptom, which is why every materia medica entry lists them and every repertory indexes them.

See: /repertory

The alcoholic extract of the source substance from which potencies are prepared, written with the symbol Ø. It is the starting point of the potency scale; the first centesimal potency is one part of tincture in ninety-nine parts of diluent, succussed.

See: /blog/homeopathic-potency-selection-guide

A homeopathic preparation made from disease-related material, such as Tuberculinum, Medorrhinum, Psorinum or Carcinosin. Classical authors discuss nosodes through reported symptom pictures and miasmatic theory; claims that they remove a miasmatic 'block' are not established clinical effects. Nosodes are not substitutes for vaccination.

See: /blog/nosodes-in-homeopathy-guide

Hahnemann's statement of homeopathic method, written as numbered paragraphs (aphorisms) and revised through six editions between 1810 and 1842. The sixth edition, published in 1921, introduced the LM potencies and is the text studied in most classical training.

See: /blog/organon-of-medicine-guide

Symptoms that belong to one part of the body: a pain in the left knee, a discharge from the right ear. They are the most numerous symptoms in any case and the least individual, so Kent's method ranks them below the mentals and generals unless a particular is strikingly characteristic.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

A remedy with extensive symptom coverage in the homeopathic literature and many repertory entries, such as Sulphur, Calcarea carbonica, Lycopodium, Pulsatilla, Nux vomica, Arsenicum, Phosphorus or Sepia. Polychrests are often studied early because they provide broad reference pictures; extensive reporting does not demonstrate clinical efficacy.

See: /blog/polycrest-remedies-guide

The dilution-and-succussion scale and step number used to prepare a homeopathic product: decimal (X or D, 1:10), centesimal (C, 1:100) or fifty-millesimal (LM/Q, 1:50,000). A 30C label denotes thirty successive 1:100 steps. Potency labels describe preparation, not demonstrated therapeutic strength or safety; some products labelled homeopathic can contain active ingredients.

See: /blog/homeopathic-potency-selection-guide

A homeopathic investigation in which healthy volunteers take a preparation and record symptoms experienced afterwards. Designs vary: historical reports and later studies differ in their use of controls, blinding and methods for attributing symptoms. Provings contribute reports to the materia medica; they do not establish treatment efficacy, and a repertory grade reflects an editor's assessment rather than automatic clinical confirmation.

See: /materia-medica

A category in Hahnemann's miasmatic theory that he associated with itch and most chronic illness; later homeopathic teaching links it with deficiency and functional disturbance. Sulphur is described as an antipsoric remedy in this literature. Psora is a historical explanatory construct, not a diagnosis of scabies or an established cause of chronic disease.

See: /blog/miasms-psora-sycosis-syphilis-guide

The process of selecting the characteristic symptoms of a case, finding the rubric for each in the repertory, and combining the remedies and grades across those rubrics to rank the candidates. The ranking is then checked against the materia medica before prescribing.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

An index of symptoms, called rubrics, that lists graded remedy associations reported in homeopathic literature. Kent's Repertory (1897) established an influential structure of 37 chapters from Mind to Generals; other reference works include Boenninghausen, Boger, Murphy and the Complete Repertory. An entry records a source association, not proof that a remedy produces or cures the symptom.

See: /repertory

A single repertory entry: a symptom in the source's own wording, together with the remedies associated with it in that literature and their assigned grades. Rubrics are nested, so 'Head, pain, forehead, morning' narrows 'Head, pain' step by step. Inclusion records a reported association rather than an established cure.

See: /repertory

A homeopathic preparation made from healthy tissue or a secretion, such as Thyroidinum or Adrenalinum, as distinct from a nosode made from disease-related material. Some homeopathic authors describe sarcodes in 'organ support' prescribing; that description does not establish improved organ function or clinical efficacy.

See: /blog/nosodes-in-homeopathy-guide

A search that matches meaning rather than exact letters, so a symptom described in modern language can suggest rubrics phrased differently in the source. Similia includes semantic search on Free with eight classical repertories and 21 classic materia medica books; access to premium sources depends on the plan. Practitioners still check each suggested entry against its source and the case.

See: /ai-features

The most similar remedy: the one whose proving and clinical picture matches the patient's totality of characteristic symptoms more closely than any other. Repertorisation narrows the field to a few candidates; the similimum is chosen by comparing them in the materia medica.

See: /blog/how-to-repertorize-beginners-guide

A category in Hahnemann's miasmatic theory, historically linked to gonorrhoea and associated in later homeopathic teaching with overgrowth, warts and discharges. Thuja and Medorrhinum appear in this literature's remedy discussions. The miasmatic label is a historical construct, not a modern diagnosis of gonorrhoea or another infection.

See: /blog/miasms-psora-sycosis-syphilis-guide

A category in Hahnemann's miasmatic theory, historically linked to syphilis and associated in homeopathic teaching with destruction, ulceration and bone pain. It belongs to the classical triad with psora and sycosis. This doctrinal label is not a diagnosis of syphilis, and historical remedy listings do not establish treatment for that infection.

See: /blog/miasms-psora-sycosis-syphilis-guide

The complete picture of the patient's characteristic symptoms, mental, general and particular, taken together with their modalities and causation. The Organon makes the totality the only basis for choosing a remedy; case taking exists to assemble it and repertorisation to analyse it.

See: /blog/homeopathic-case-taking-guide

Grinding an insoluble substance with lactose in a mortar for a fixed time at each of the first potency steps, usually to 3C, after which it can be dissolved and potentised in liquid. Metals, minerals and many salts enter the materia medica this way.

See: /blog/homeopathic-potency-selection-guide

The practice of prescribing a single remedy at a time, chosen on the totality of symptoms, and waiting to observe its action before any change, as Hahnemann described. The term is used in French and Spanish practice (homéopathie uniciste, homeopatía unicista) to distinguish this method from complex and pluralist prescribing.

See: /blog/unicist-homeopathy-guide

Hahnemann's theoretical self-regulating principle, described in the Organon as maintaining health and becoming disturbed in illness. His account attributes a remedy's action to this principle. The term explains a historical homeopathic doctrine, not an established physiological mechanism, and does not replace clinical examination or appropriate diagnostic testing.

See: /blog/organon-of-medicine-guide