John Addington Symonds (10 April 1807 – 25 February 1871) was an English physician and writer.

Symonds was educated at Magdalen College School; at the age of sixteen he went to the University of Edinburgh for medical training, and graduated M.D.

In 1859 he secretly forced Charles Vaughn to resign as headmaster of Harrow School, after learning about the latter's affair with a pupil.

In his early years at Bristol Symonds contributed to the Cyclopædia of Practical Medicine, the British and Foreign Medical Review, and other professional periodicals.

Symonds prepared in 1849 a life of his friend Prichard for the Bath and Bristol branch of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (printed in their Journal, 1850, vol.