disease
Americannoun
-
diseases
plural
-
a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment.
- Synonyms:
- malady, disorder, infirmity, indisposition, distemper, derangement, complaint, morbidity
- Antonyms:
- health
-
any abnormal condition in a plant that interferes with its vital physiological processes, caused by pathogenic microorganisms, parasites, unfavorable environmental, genetic, or nutritional factors, etc.
-
any harmful, depraved, or morbid condition, as of the mind or society.
His fascination with executions is a disease.
-
decomposition of a material under special circumstances.
tin disease.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
any impairment of normal physiological function affecting all or part of an organism, esp a specific pathological change caused by infection, stress, etc, producing characteristic symptoms; illness or sickness in general
-
a corresponding condition in plants
-
any situation or condition likened to this
the disease of materialism
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of disease
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English disese, from Anglo-French dese(a)se, disaise; dis- 1 + ease
Explanation
A disease is a health condition that has a specific set of symptoms and traits — such as malaria or heart disease. Disease is not always about the human body being sick. Plants and animals are often the victims of disease. People also use the word disease in a more figurative sense to illustrate just how bad or damaging a negative influence can be — like the disease of greed among capitalists or the disease of plagiarism among college students.
Vocabulary lists containing disease
Ecology - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Introductory
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Ecology - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Middle School and High School
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Workshop 5, Part 1
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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:
He said intelligence is the ability to solve problems creatively, such as winning at chess, driving a car and curing a disease.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026
While certain tea drinking habits were linked to a lower risk of disease, drinking tea at extremely high temperatures appeared to have the opposite association.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
Although inherited genetic factors can influence who develops Parkinson's, researchers have increasingly focused on environmental exposures that may also contribute to the disease.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
The findings therefore should not be interpreted as proof that drinking extremely hot tea directly causes vascular disease.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
And he prayed that his family would be protected from the atom bomb disease called leukemia.
From "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr
Radiologists are doctors who specialise in using images to diagnose and manage medical conditions and diseases.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
Researchers found that people who consumed tea regularly had a lower risk of developing several vascular diseases compared with those who did not drink tea.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
And it seems that these undetected flares may contribute to several of the hallmark diseases of old age.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
Soriot said in the results statement that the group continues "to invest in AI technology to tackle complex diseases".
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Yellow fever was one of the most vicious diseases in the world and could create panic anywhere.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
"Boosting immune cell fitness may also help with other conditions where the immune system fails to clear diseased cells," Beyaz says.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
New medications are showing promise in going after a certain kind of hard-to-target protein in diseased cells.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The first starts with terror of the unknown and unseen but culminates in sheer pathos; the latter keeps the reader guessing: Is the creature real or merely the product of a diseased imagination?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
He is also concerned about unregulated nurseries selling unidentified, or diseased plants.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Bunches of gray herbs hung like diseased fruit from the ceiling.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
In either case we have diabetes, the sugar irritating and diseasing the kidneys as it passes.”
From Alcohol: A Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, How and Why What Medical Writers Say by Martha Meir Allen
They provide for your wants, hearken to your complaints, nurture you in sickness, with a diseasing fondness, and so render you incapable.
From Charlemont; Or, the Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky by William Gilmore Simms
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
