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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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:
The deadly disease has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
Observing these physical changes could offer new insights into how the disease affects blood cells.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 17, 2026
Yet many questions remain about what exactly these infinitesimal flecks of synthetic polymers do to human health, and how they might cause disease.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Necropsies found chronic inflammatory disease in the gastrointestinal systems in Peekachu and Rain.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Unlike illnesses such as tuberculosis or flu, it can be difficult to hide an advanced case of Hansen’s disease.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
She had been suffering from multiple diseases, according to the department.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
This comes as artificial intelligence is enabling tests that can better detect diseases in early stages and predict risk factors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The achievement could eventually help researchers develop new approaches to treating diseases caused by malfunctioning mitochondria.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
Droughts, intensive downpours and diseases have created challenges for tea growers across the world as they deal with the impact of a warming planet.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
His mother died, but she didn’t have any diseases, and neither does he.
From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold
A new class of medications—known as “protein degraders”—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
Researchers collected tissue from both diseased and non-diseased areas of the heart.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
"Farmers may unknowingly buy diseased plants. The trees may look healthy initially, but after five or seven years they can suddenly die, causing huge financial losses," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
But there’s something wrong with this voice, something diseased at its core.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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
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
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
