disease

[ dih-zeez ]
See synonyms for disease on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.

  2. any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.

  1. any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society: His fascination with executions is a disease.

  2. decomposition of a material under special circumstances: tin disease.

verb (used with object),dis·eased, dis·eas·ing.
  1. to affect with disease; make ill.

Origin of disease

1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English disese, from Anglo-French dese(a)se, disaise; dis-1 + ease

Other words for disease

Opposites for disease

Other words from disease

  • dis·eas·ed·ly, adverb
  • dis·eas·ed·ness, noun

Words Nearby disease

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use disease in a sentence

  • In disease, the amount of solids depends mainly upon the activity of metabolism and the ability of the kidneys to excrete.

    A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
  • Men's lives are as thoroughly blended with each other as the air they breathe: evil spreads as necessarily as disease.

    Pearls of Thought | Maturin M. Ballou
  • As a rule, however, persistent glycosuria is diagnostic of diabetes mellitus, of which disease it is the essential symptom.

    A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
  • Here they are seldom abundant, but their constant presence is the most reliable urinary sign of the disease.

    A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
  • The darkness, or rather the general misapprehension, which prevails on this subject, is a frightful source of disease and misery.

    Glances at Europe | Horace Greeley

British Dictionary definitions for disease

disease

/ (dɪˈziːz) /


noun
  1. any impairment of normal physiological function affecting all or part of an organism, esp a specific pathological change caused by infection, stress, etc, producing characteristic symptoms; illness or sickness in general

  2. a corresponding condition in plants

  1. any situation or condition likened to this: the disease of materialism

Origin of disease

1
C14: from Old French desaise; see dis- 1, ease

Other words from disease

  • Related adjective: pathological

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012