malady
Americannoun
-
maladies
plural
-
any disorder or disease of the body, especially one that is chronic or deepseated.
- Synonyms:
- indisposition, ailment, complaint, affliction, sickness, illness
-
any undesirable or disordered condition.
social maladies; a malady of the spirit.
noun
-
any disease or illness
-
any unhealthy, morbid, or desperate condition
a malady of the spirit
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of malady
1200–50; Middle English maladie < Old French, equivalent to malade sick (< Late Latin male habitus literally, ill-conditioned; see mal-, habit 1) + -ie -y 3
Explanation
A malady is an illness, like a malady that keeps you home, sick in bed for days, or something that causes you to have trouble or to suffer, like jet lag — a malady that affects travelers. Malady, pronounced "MAL-uh-dee," comes from the Latin words male, meaning "bad or ill" and habitus for "have, hold." When you have a malady, it is like something bad is holding you, such as an illness — the common cold: a malady of winter. Some bad habits cause maladies, such as never having any money — the malady of people who spend freely, not thinking of the future.
Vocabulary lists containing malady
Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Kite Runner
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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:
When Alma is summoned to a doctor’s office to learn about Elisabet’s malady, the space—like Elisabet’s room itself—is characterless and denuded of nearly all décor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Some believed that the latest epidemic was of a "mystical malady", a common belief in some remote areas of the DRC.
From Barron's ● May 24, 2026
The word “nostalgia” first emerged to describe what doctors back then considered a malady, thinking it unwise to long for the past.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
You are also suffering from a very modern malady: decision paralysis.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 17, 2026
What can I do to cure her malady?
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
The odds of these maladies rise dramatically in your 80s, but serious health challenges are not uncommon in your 70s, as I sadly saw with my late sister earlier this year.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026
Most of Aviv’s characters wander through life uneasily, plagued by misdiagnosed, undiagnosable or undertreated maladies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
"They treat a whole host of maladies," said Thomas Patton, a professor at New York state's Union College who has studied Myanmar's mystics.
From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025
Research shows that such stress can cause an increase in physical, psychological and emotional illness, along with other maladies, up to and including death.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2025
Through the thirties and into early wartime, his natural vigor had kept these maladies at bay, but the sheer magnitude of the demands on his time and energy finally had caught up with him.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
