sickness
Americannoun
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a particular disease or malady.
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the state or an instance of being sick; illness.
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nausea; queasiness.
noun
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an illness or disease
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nausea or queasiness
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the state or an instance of being sick
Etymology
Origin of sickness
before 1000; Middle English siknesse, seknesse, Old English sēocnesse. See sick 1, -ness
Compare meaning
How does sickness compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The condition of being unwell or having an illness is sickness. Your sickness during the month of November might mean you miss a lot of school. A well-known, Christian version of wedding vows includes a promise to "have and to hold...in sickness and in health." This means the couple agrees to stay together and support each other whether they're healthy or ill. Some sickness is a chronic or permanent kind of malady, while others are more specific, like morning sickness during pregnancy or a brief flash of sickness when your plane hits a patch of turbulence.
Vocabulary lists containing sickness
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.
Jeanne Abrams is professor emerita at the University of Denver and author of “Revolutionary Medicine: The Founding Fathers and Mothers in Sickness and in Health.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
She has now received grief counselling and mental health support through the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support.
From BBC • Dec. 10, 2025
Sickness forced him back to the United States after less than a month, but he had seen enough to transform his life and art forever.
From Slate • Jun. 6, 2025
Sickness can hurt farm output by slowing animals' growth, so disease detection systems could improve efficiency by obviating the need for costly clinical testing.
From Salon • May 15, 2024
I ask Dad what afflicted means and he says, Sickness, son, and things that don’t fit.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
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.
