disease
Americannoun
-
diseases
plural
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- malady, disorder, infirmity, indisposition, distemper, derangement, complaint, morbidity
- Antonyms:
- health
-
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.
-
any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society.
His fascination with executions is a disease.
-
decomposition of a material under special circumstances.
tin disease.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
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
-
a corresponding condition in plants
-
any situation or condition likened to this
the disease of materialism
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of disease
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English disese, from Anglo-French dese(a)se, disaise; dis- 1 + ease
Explanation
A disease is a health condition that has a specific set of symptoms and traits — such as malaria or heart disease. Disease is not always about the human body being sick. Plants and animals are often the victims of disease. People also use the word disease in a more figurative sense to illustrate just how bad or damaging a negative influence can be — like the disease of greed among capitalists or the disease of plagiarism among college students.
Vocabulary lists containing disease
Ecology - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Introductory
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Ecology - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Middle School and High School
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Workshop 5, Part 1
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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:
After Walker’s death, a medical examiner ruled that she died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease with preeclampsia, the latter of which is a dangerous pregnancy-related high blood pressure condition that doctors had identified in Walker.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2026
"It's a disease of a significant unmet medical need," says Brian Cunniff, a professor at the University of Vermont.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
The latest government figures show there have been more than 194,000 cases since March from the highly contagious disease, which spreads easily through breathing, coughing or sneezing.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
The earlier results suggested that a high dose of the therapy slowed disease progression by 75% compared with a historical database of patients.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
His family wiped out by disease and war, fourteen-year-old orphan Andrew Jackson first lived with relatives and later moved to North Carolina.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
This persistent inflammation has been associated with numerous diseases that become more common later in life.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
The Food and Drug Administration has adopted these modern methods to approve new drugs for other slow-progressing diseases, including Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and metabolic liver disease.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
But that wasn’t the case, and those exposed are now at elevated risks of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, not to mention cancer.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
This year, a seventh bell was rung to commemorate the thousands who died from diseases including cancer after the attacks.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Neither did the early farmers understand that feeding children with more porridge and less breast milk would weaken their immune system, and that permanent settlements would be hotbeds for infectious diseases.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
He is also concerned about unregulated nurseries selling unidentified, or diseased plants.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Those changes were even more pronounced in diseased livers.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 3, 2026
Cells in the diseased livers had started moving away from their mature state and toward the regenerative state, but they were unable to finish the transition.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
In particular, they’re examining how bacteria from diseased gums, and the immune response they trigger, may contribute to conditions including heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, arthritis, respiratory disease and chronic liver disease.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
A television journalist in the Farm Belt once said this about a suspected outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease: The pasture contained several cows seen by news reporters that were dead, diseased, or dying.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
In either case we have diabetes, the sugar irritating and diseasing the kidneys as it passes.”
From Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Martha Meir Allen
They provide for your wants, hearken to your complaints, nurture you in sickness, with a diseasing fondness, and so render you incapable.
From Charlemont; Or, the Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky by William Gilmore Simms
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.
