In common medical and nursing abbreviations, the letter c written with a horizontal line over it is a symbol meaning which of the following?

Introduction / Context:
Medical prescriptions, nursing notes, and clinical records often use shorthand symbols so that health professionals can write instructions quickly. Many exams on basic nursing, paramedical courses, or general science include questions about these standard abbreviations. This question asks about the meaning of the letter c written with a line over it, a very common symbol in healthcare documentation, and checks whether you are familiar with this basic piece of medical notation.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The symbol in question is the letter c with a horizontal line drawn above it.
- The options suggest four possible meanings: with, without, and, and or.
- The context is standard medical or nursing shorthand used worldwide, especially in English speaking medical systems.

Concept / Approach:
Medical abbreviations often come from Latin. The letter c with a line over it is derived from the Latin word “cum” which means “with”. Similarly, the letter s with a line over it comes from “sine” which means “without”. Learning this pair helps you avoid confusion. Therefore, when you see c with a line on a prescription or chart, it should be read as “with”, for example “c food” meaning “with food”. You can thus confidently choose “with” as the correct option.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recognize that the question is about standard medical shorthand, not about mathematics or some other subject. Step 2: Recall that many such symbols are based on Latin: c with a line from “cum” meaning with, and s with a line from “sine” meaning without. Step 3: Match the Latin root “cum” and its meaning with the English word “with”. Step 4: Compare the four options and see that “with” is the choice that aligns exactly with this traditional meaning. Step 5: Select “with” and eliminate the other three options as distractors.

Verification / Alternative check:
One way to verify this is to imagine reading a common prescription instruction such as “Take 1 tablet c meals twice daily”. In standard practice, this is interpreted as “Take one tablet with meals twice daily”. If you replaced c with “without”, “and”, or “or”, the instruction would become confusing or grammatically incorrect. This mental test confirms that the correct interpretation of the symbol is “with”. Once you know this, you can also use it to interpret many similar medical instructions quickly and accurately.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
- without: This meaning actually corresponds to a different symbol, usually s with a line over it, based on the Latin word “sine”. Using “without” for c with a line would be incorrect and could even cause medical errors if someone misreads a prescription.
- and: The symbol for “and” is usually written as “&” in general English, not as c with a line in medical shorthand. Confusing these symbols would not match standard medical notation.
- or: There is no common convention that uses c with a line over it to mean “or” in prescriptions or nursing notes, so this option is not appropriate.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes mix up c with a line and s with a line, especially if they try to memorize them at the last minute without understanding their Latin roots. Another pitfall is assuming that the line over the letter might indicate logical operations such as “and” or “or”, similar to symbols in mathematics or logic. In exams, remember that you are being tested on medical abbreviations, not mathematical ones. A simple memory trick is to associate c with “cum” and therefore “with”, and s with “sine” and therefore “without”.

Final Answer:
In medical shorthand, the symbol c with a line over it stands for the word with.