ailment
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ailment
Explanation
If you've got a rash or a persistent cough, you can call that an ailment. Some other common ailments are allergies or chronic headaches. They can be a real pain. Literally. The word ailment comes from the Old English eglan meaning "to trouble, plague, afflict," and the suffix -ment from the Latin mentum, which when added to the end of word describing an action turns that word into the result of that action. So the result of something that troubles, plagues or afflicts you is an ailment — a pain or discomfort that just doesn't seem to go away.
Vocabulary lists containing ailment
Chains
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The Last Last-Day-of-Summer
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The Fault in Our Stars
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Cooking for hours before a burning gas stove on extremely hot days has worsened an existing heart ailment, Agarwal says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Manager Dave Roberts had expressed optimism Thursday night, after the Dodgers’ 8-6 win against the Pirates at PNC Park, that Ohtani would not miss additional time for the ailment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
But these two suffer from the same ailment - they're strikers who are not very good at striking the ball into an opponent's net no matter who they're playing for.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
The FDA also requires that a drug be tested for its ability to treat a named ailment rather than something more general like “aging.”
From Slate ● Mar. 30, 2026
For the greater number of her twenty-nine years, Bibi Haldar suffered from an ailment that baffled family, friends, priests, palmists, spinsters, gem therapists, prophets, and fools.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Some of the most familiar medical problems and ailments arise directly from these inherited constraints.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
High blood pressure, nervous breakdowns, respiratory problems, fever and dehydration feature among the most common ailments at the site housing hundreds, according to several doctors consulted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
There’s no insurance product that will protect all your assets from the unpredictable, multiyear impact of serious health ailments.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
Some local residents have long pressed leaders to act, saying that intrusive noise could worsen post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
From Salon ● Apr. 27, 2026
To Wilkes’s way of thinking, ancient Indian farming methods may be the cure for some of modern agriculture’s ailments.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
