health
Americannoun
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the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor.
good health;
poor health.
-
soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment.
to have one's health;
to lose one's health.
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a polite or complimentary wish for a person's health, happiness, etc., especially as a toast.
We drank a health to our guest of honor.
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vigor; vitality.
economic health.
noun
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the state of being bodily and mentally vigorous and free from disease
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the general condition of body and mind
in poor health
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the condition of any unit, society, etc
the economic health of a nation
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a toast to a person, wishing him or her good health, happiness, etc
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(modifier) of or relating to food or other goods reputed to be beneficial to the health
health food
a health store
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(modifier) of or relating to health, esp to the administration of health
a health committee
health resort
health service
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of health
First recorded before 1000; Middle English helthe, Old English hǣlth; see hale 1, whole, -th 1
Explanation
Your health is the condition of your body. If you barely get any sleep and only eat frozen pizza and jellybeans, you probably have poor health. Health comes from the old English word for "whole," and you can think of it as the state of your whole being — both body and mind. We use health to talk about bodies and people, but also to talk about whole systems. If you lost your job, you might be worried about the health of your finances. If a bad manager provokes employees to be unproductive, investors might be worried about the health of a business.
Vocabulary lists containing health
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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Supreme Court healthcare ruling
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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.
Health agencies are urging citizens to watch for signs of heat-related illness, ranging from cramps and exhaustion to life-threatening heat stroke.
From Barron's • Jun. 30, 2026
CVS Health is hiring for an AI Ops Engineering executive director with expertise in FinOps—that includes what the company described as “GPU cost governance,” and “cost reduction,” according to a job posting.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
The county’s rescue team features not just firefighters and paramedics but also doctors from the Department of Health Services and structural engineers trained to assess heavily damaged buildings, Espy said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 29, 2026
More than 1,300 excess deaths since 21 June have been linked to the heatwave, according to the World Health Organization.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2026
Health care, education, and food security are sometimes nonexistent in the central plateau.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
