malaise

American  

[ma-layz, -muh-, ma-lez] / mæˈleɪz, -mə-, maˈlɛz /

noun

• malaises
  plural

1. 

   a condition of general bodily weakness or discomfort, often marking the onset of a disease.

2. a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness, lethargy, or discomfort.

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malaise British  

/ mæˈleɪz /

noun

1. a feeling of unease or depression

2. a mild sickness, not symptomatic of any disease or ailment

3. a complex of problems affecting a country, economy, etc

   Bulgaria's economic malaise

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• malaises
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of malaise

First recorded in 1760–70; from French, Old French, equivalent to mal- + ease

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Explanation

If you are experiencing malaise, chances are you are feeling blue or looking green. Malaise is a slump; you're not feeling your best — either mentally or physically. Mal is French for "bad," and aise means "ease." When experiencing malaise, ease yourself down on the couch to recover. Malaise is frequently used figuratively to describe slumps that other things go through as well. The 20-year economic malaise in Japan is one example, but you'll also hear of educational malaise, political malaise, and even "a general malaise." Wherever you turn, there's malaise.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

malaise malaises

Chipotle shares, meanwhile, have fallen 11.7% over that period, amid a bigger fast-casual slump and malaise over pricier “slop bowls” that have become a staple in that segment of the restaurant industry.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

He noted that Morrissey’s malaise mirrors the sentiment of many ranchera songs, also citing that his effeminate onstage persona is a perfect subversion of Mexican machismo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

De Zerbi, though, defended their summer window despite their current malaise.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

It advocated for greater freedoms and rule of law even as those notions fell increasingly out of favor with a populace willing to embrace a strongman ruler to end the post-Soviet economic malaise.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

Her soliloquies mawkish, her sentiments maudlin, malaise dripped like a fever from her pores.

From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Rather, the key to overcoming the malaises of alienation is about changing the social conditions or epidemiology of this alienation and moving societies beyond common indignities, gross inequities, and identity politics.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2024

For these two analysts, the key to overcoming the malaises of social alienation have nothing whatsoever to do with catching up, getting even with, or hating one’s enemies, adversaries, abusers, oppressors, and so on.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2024

But despite her placidity, Poplavskaya has leapfrogged to prominence in recent years, profiting from the malaises or caprices of others.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2011

When Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the Social ists took power late in 1964, the pound was in one of its deeper malaises.

From Time Magazine Archive

I damned my own twinges and fading malaises.

From A Book of Burlesques by H. L. (Henry Louis) Mencken

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Related Words

• angst
• anxiety
• despair
• discomfort
• disquiet
• doldrums
• illness
• pain
• unease
• uneasiness
• weakness

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