ailment
Americannoun
-
ailments
plural
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:
Economists have lots of theories, but a commonly cited ailment is “uncertainty.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Dysport is a muscle relaxant that Ipsen markets for therapeutic indications such as a neck ailment called cervical dystonia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
"It's really amazing to see that something that's supposed to prevent a physical ailment can also help keep our brain healthy, too."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
Lying on the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust, the elephant slowly exhausted himself in futile attempts to stand, the latest potential victim of a still-mysterious ailment in southern Kenya.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
And then I go for it, risking my worst talent with an improvised, final zinger: “It’s a tough thing to have a mom with a stomach ailment, when you barely have a dad at all.”
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
Drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are increasingly used for a wide range of ailments.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Angurweet is used as a remedy for ailments including stomach ache.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Experts estimated that close to 400,000 people remain at risk from a myriad of life altering ailments.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
The Dodgers just gave him four, before he returned to the lineup Monday, and his roster of ailments will be managed rather than resolved for the rest of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
It bled and hurt, but my other ailments were already causing me so much trouble that I let this one slide, which was stupid of me, because now I’m walking around with an infected toe.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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.
