ailment
Americannoun
noun
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.
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
The medical term for my ailment is an asymmetrical gluteal cleft, though requests to fix it are far less common than those to eliminate cellulite, flatten the tummy, or augment the breasts.
From Slate • Feb. 22, 2026
Joe Abah, a former boss of Nigeria's Bureau of Public Service Reforms, claimed on social media platform X how a private hospital in the capital, Abuja, urged him to undergo immediate surgery for an ailment.
From BBC • Jan. 15, 2026
The fascinated Kayleen, clearly outclassed in the first round of the ailment and injury competition that forms the mordant spine of the play, asks to see and touch Doug’s wound.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
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
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.
