A dose is a measured quantity of a medicine, nutrient, or pathogen which is delivered as a unit
. The term is usually applied to the quantity of a drug or other agent administered for therapeutic purposes, but may be used to describe any case where a substance is introduced to the body
. In nutrition, the term is usually applied to how much of a specific nutrient is in a person's diet or in a particular food, meal, or dietary supplement
. The infectious dose of a pathogen is the number of cells required to infect the host
. The term "dose" can also be used to describe a portion of a substance added during a process or an amount of something likened to a prescribed or measured quantity of medicine
. For example, a daily dose of hard work or a dose of scandal
. In medicine, a drug dose is a specific amount or weight of medication, while dosage attaches time to a dose
