ailment
Americannoun
-
ailments
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ailment
Explanation
If you've got a rash or a persistent cough, you can call that an ailment. Some other common ailments are allergies or chronic headaches. They can be a real pain. Literally. The word ailment comes from the Old English eglan meaning "to trouble, plague, afflict," and the suffix -ment from the Latin mentum, which when added to the end of word describing an action turns that word into the result of that action. So the result of something that troubles, plagues or afflicts you is an ailment — a pain or discomfort that just doesn't seem to go away.
Vocabulary lists containing ailment
Chains
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The Last Last-Day-of-Summer
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The Fault in Our Stars
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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:
"It's really amazing to see that something that's supposed to prevent a physical ailment can also help keep our brain healthy, too."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
Lying on the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust, the elephant slowly exhausted himself in futile attempts to stand, the latest potential victim of a still-mysterious ailment in southern Kenya.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
There are few fortunes that can outlast a dementia illness or other ailment that requires full-time care for 20-plus years.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Last year’s struggles, which ended with a .138 average in the World Series, have been blamed on an early-season stomach ailment and all-season adjustment to shortstop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
At suppertime my mother came in to ask if I were ill, and being too slow-witted to invent an ailment, I got up and went down to the meal.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Meta’s settlement won’t cure teens’ mental ailments, but it will do more good than years of further litigation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
In Russia, phenibut is a prescription drug used to treat anxiety, insomnia, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Parton had canceled a planned Las Vegas engagement in May 2026, revealing that she was being treated for kidney stones as well as other undisclosed digestive and immune ailments.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
We always stayed in touch, almost every week or so and we'd usually talk about our ailments and then about what we'd been doing that particular week.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
“You know stomach ailments, sir,” I say, attempting an off-the-cuff improv.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
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.
