ill
adjective
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i-ll.
ill
1 American
[il]
/ ɪl /
adjective
worse,
worst,
iller,
illest
-
of unsound physical or mental health; unwell; sick.
She felt ill, so her teacher sent her to the nurse.
-
objectionable; unsatisfactory; poor; faulty.
ill manners.
-
ill feeling.
-
of ill repute.
- Synonyms:
- iniquitous, wrong
- Antonyms:
- good
-
ill fortune.
-
of inferior worth or ability; unskillful; inexpert.
an ill example of scholarship.
-
His mom is the illest cook.
noun
ills
plural
-
an unfavorable opinion or statement.
I can speak no ill of her.
-
harm or injury.
His remarks did much ill.
- Synonyms:
- misery, affliction, pain, hurt
-
trouble, distress, or misfortune.
Many ills befell him.
- Synonyms:
- calamity
-
evil.
to know the difference between good and ill.
- Synonyms:
- depravity
-
sickness or disease.
- Synonyms:
- affliction, illness
adverb
-
in an ill manner.
-
unsatisfactorily; poorly.
It ill befits a man to betray old friends.
-
in a hostile or unfriendly manner.
-
unfavorably; unfortunately.
-
with displeasure or offense.
-
faultily; improperly.
-
with difficulty or inconvenience; scarcely.
Buying a new car is an expense we can ill afford.
idioms
I'll
2
American
[ahyl]
/ aɪl /
ill.
3
American
abbreviation
-
illustrated.
-
illustration.
-
illustrator.
-
most illustrious.
Ill.
4
American
abbreviation
ill
1
British
/ ɪl /
adjective
-
(usually postpositive) not in good health; sick
-
characterized by or intending evil, harm, etc; hostile
ill deeds
-
causing or resulting in pain, harm, adversity, etc
ill effects
-
ascribing or imputing evil to something referred to
ill repute
-
promising an unfavourable outcome; unpropitious
an ill omen
-
harsh; lacking kindness
ill will
-
not up to an acceptable standard; faulty
ill manners
-
unable to relax; uncomfortable
noun
-
evil or harm
to wish a person ill
-
a mild disease
-
misfortune; trouble
adverb
-
badly
the title ill befits him
-
with difficulty; hardly
he can ill afford the money
-
not rightly
she ill deserves such good fortune
Ill.
2
British
abbreviation
I'll
3
British
/ aɪl /
contraction
ill
More Idioms
Grammar
See well 1.
Usage
What are other ways to say ill? The adjective ill is defined as “evil; wicked; bad.” However, it’s not used in exactly the same way as any of those synonyms! Learn the difference among these terms on Thesaurus.com.
Synonym Usage
Ill, sick mean being in bad health, not being well. Ill is the more formal word. In the U. S. the two words are used practically interchangeably except that sick is always used when the word modifies the following noun: He looks sick ( ill ); a sick person. In England, sick is not interchangeable with ill, but usually has the connotation of nauseous: She got sick and threw up. sick, however, is used before nouns just as in the U. S.: a sick man.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ill1
1150–1200; Middle English ill ( e ) (noun and adj.) < Old Norse illr (adj.) ill, bad
Origin of ill.3
ill. ( def. 4 ) < Latin illustrissimus
Explanation
If you're ill, you're unwell, or sick. Being ill is a good excuse for missing work or school. You might get ill after being sneezed on by someone with a cold; or eating street food in a foreign country; or for no reason that you can point to. People can be mentally ill as well as physically ill, from depression or anxiety among other ailments. Ill can also mean "bad" in various ways, including when you suffer ill effects from going too long without sleep, or exercise ill judgment when you buy $500 worth of lottery tickets.
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 eventually reunited with his mother in 2002, when she was terminally ill.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
For those who have fallen ill, treatment includes an antibiotic called Bactrim.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
But others who had fallen ill hadn’t eaten there, “suggesting the outbreak extends beyond the chain,” the Post said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
The majority of the studies on UPFs that make headlines are observational papers looking at associations between self-reported food intake and health outcomes—these tell us little about whether UPFs actually cause ill health.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026
When her husband and daughter visit, she puts on a cheerful demeanor, even when she’s desperately ill.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
“That,” the Chicago Cubs’ star said, “is a cool nugget I’ll always keep with me.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Today I’ll explain how we got here—and whether this new policy will save lives.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
‘I don’t think I’ll make it to 80’: I’m 70 and single.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
"Who's going to say to Messi, 'No, I'll take them'?"
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
And yet, no matter how much we bicker, I’ll never deny his talent for cooking.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"I am under so much stress that it's made me ill. My wife is also unwell. This is not human rights."
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
"He was critically ill. His heart stopped as soon as he arrived. We had to perform CPR," said lead author Ankit Bharat, a thoracic surgeon at Northwestern University.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 18, 2026
She said: "It was a shock because my father was always a big, strong man, so he was never ill. He never used to take time off sick from work."
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025
“I walked into the facility healthy and feeling fine, and within 24 hours I became severely ill. I had severe burning in my face, tremors, twitching; I felt like I was being electrocuted.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2025
"She's never without her favorite comb. Her grandmother gave it to her a year before she grew ill. She wore it everywhere. Even in the bathing tubs."
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Ben Zwief, an adviser in Lake Forest, Ill., cites the example of a client with $50,000 in credit-card debt at a 20% interest rate.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
A recreation director from Berwyn, Ill., the aforementioned Ray Clay, succeeded Mr. Edwards starting with the 1990-91 championship season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Thomas Dreesen was born Sept. 11, 1939, and raised in Harvey, Ill., a suburb on the south side of Chicago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Born in Maywood, Ill., Parazaider began his music career as a clarinetist, before founding Chicago with childhood friends in the group’s namesake city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
I was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
As Dan Kois illustrates in this ode to kicking back with friends, spending unstructured time together is a blessedly simple cure to the ills of modern life.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
Is a former England striker right about reasons for Scottish football's ills?
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
An experience completely ignorant to the ills of modern football, to politics, ticket prices or hydration breaks.
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
Ultimately, a ballot initiative won’t cure the ills that plague healthcare in the United States, said the Lown Institute’s Saini.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
She used religion as a therapy for the ills of the world and of herself, and she changed the religion to fit the ill.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
"If you have a generally iller population, that's not good for the residents, it's not good for productivity, it's not good for the economy.'"
From BBC ● May 25, 2023
This gave him an unnatural appearance and made him look iller than ever.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 30, 2019
He got iller and iller and iller, and of course he died in the beginning of 2015 when some of the other things had started appearing in the press.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2016
Still, in his older, iller years, he's become kinder, even to himself, and though he wished he'd done some stuff better, he could live with it.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 23, 2012
Still, if this be snow in earnest," he added with a cheerier tone, "it may rid us of these vermin, who'll find provand iller to get every extra day they bide.
From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Munro, Neil
The Black neighborhoods like Baldwin Hills Estates, Ladera Heights and View Park all sit hillside with some of the illest views in the city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
His wife was told she should prepare for the worst, with staff describing her husband as "one of the illest people they'd ever seen".
From BBC ● May 21, 2024
Rapper Travis Scott told his nearly 12 million followers on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Monday “might be one for the illest days in women’s sports historyyyyyyy.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
It’s one of the illest, if not the illest Caribbean food spots in the city.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 22, 2022
Not knowing is worse than the very illest news.
From Grey Town An Australian Story by Baldwin, Gerald
I guess if Letterboxd decides to sell to a media company and becomes objectively worse, disappointed users can migrate to A24’s physical, paper-bound film logs.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
Graham, for better and worse, had built up a fiefdom for himself in foreign policy, similar to the way McCain or other old Senate lions had.
From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026
Now, with a heat wave descending over much of Southern California, residents worry the odor could get even worse and scores of residents have called air quality regulators to complain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
As with many treatments focused on symptoms rather than causes, the underlying disease will be left worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Doing it with practically a blank page in front of me would be even worse.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
Toronto had the worst air quality of any major city in the world on Wednesday, the Swiss firm IQAir said, as Canadian authorities urged people to stay indoors.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
IQAir, a company which tracks global air quality, ranked it as having the worst air quality in the world.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Ed Longanecker, the president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, said Paxton was instrumental in holding off the worst of the new rules.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026
IBM stock suffers its worst day on record.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
“No idea. But it’s probably because you and I are the worst partners in the history of ever.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
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.
