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:
The drug was generally well tolerated, and the critically ill patients in the trial lived longer than patients receiving standard treatments.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026
Both participants died after falling ill on the half marathon route on Sunday, which runs from Newcastle to South Shields.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Amodei's alert came just as Altman said he would not pursue an initial public stock offering this year, saying it would be "ill advised" given the swirling safety concerns.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
Of those, 65 were domestically acquired, meaning infected people became ill either in the state or after traveling within the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
I made broth for Mr. Diamant, who was ill and in his bed, then sat stewing on the windowsill.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
"I'll be discussing almost everything with him," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, ahead of their meeting on September 24.
From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026
I'll never forget the Scottish Cup win and the celebrations afterwards as long as I live.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
I’ll never know whether that strawberry she fed me had some whipped cream on it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
“In hindsight, you’ll always be able to learn from it. I’ll never hang onto whether you want to say it was a mistake or just different things to be able to kind of change course.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
Maybe after harvest, I’ll find the preacher, his wife and daughter in their new church.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
"They'd make me feel ill. I couldn't even look at it."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
"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
“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
“He’s ill. Can you ... ? “Can I see to it that he is given his share of whatever Bridgebane provides?
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
The company expects eventually to increase annual production capacity at its plant in Normal, Ill., to 215,000 vehicles, adding potentially another 300,000 in capacity through its plant in Stanton Springs, Ga.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
According to Velasco, Ventura County was among only three of 12 local jurisdictions contacted — along with Cook County, Ill., and Harris Country, Texas — that said it was “evaluating” Mexico’s complaint.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
One went to an Ohio warehouse for the marketplace Alibris before heading to an industrial complex in Addison, Ill., whose address matched a location for a company with a large book-scanning business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
I was en route to the airport in Moline, Ill., nearly three decades ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
I was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
They fear the uncertainties of artificial intelligence and suffer the ills of inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
To remedy these ills, the court needs top-to-bottom reform.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 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
A Google user experience team two years later detailed ills affecting viewer well-being, based on external research.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
The vice president of the Durham Merchants Association complained, with some justification, that the business community was being blamed for all of Durham’s ills.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
"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
Last year began with my being ill, kept on with my being iller, then I was unwell, followed by being poorly with a tiny interlude of infirmity.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2012
This, in turn, was the very thing to keep him but ill at ease with himself, and iller at ease, if not at downright loggerheads, with everybody else.
From The Red Moccasins A Story by Morrison Heady
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
There was just a little milk that was reserved for the illest patients, no butter or bread.
From Field Hospital and Flying Column Being the Journal of an English Nursing Sister in Belgium & Russia by Violetta Thurstan
Even worse is the lack of any architectural differentiation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
It’s not hard to imagine this situation getting worse, but don’t forget who’s in control.
From Salon ● Sep. 16, 2026
In a letter sent this month, Burchett noted that he wanted to scrutinize how homelessness has gotten worse during her tenure as mayor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026
Perhaps the reasons today are no worse than those in the past.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
“His trust! That—that—man . . .” He deserved to be called worse, but in the wood-paneled office, I couldn’t debase myself to use the words that were on the tip of my tongue.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Right fielder Kyle Tucker — who continued his recent hot streak with a single, two doubles and a home run on Thursday — is still on pace for the worst full season of his career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Goldman Sachs strategist on Thursday charted five-year rolling returns on the all-important 10-year Treasury note — pegging it as the worst such period for returns in more than a century.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
The worst shortages hit refined products, not crude.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
"The worst that can happen is that they say no and that's ok."
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
It was the worst memory he had, and it latched onto his brain like a leech.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
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.
