ill
adjective
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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:
What’s the use of punishing a terminally ill man?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Mr. Blyth exudes a bland wholesomeness that’s an ill fit for the cynicism and cocky humor that define his character.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
For the last six years of his life, he was terminally ill, and I was his full-time caregiver, around the clock.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
A terminally ill mum who has been given three years to live has been denied disability benefit despite being unable to eat, talk, dress or use the toilet independently.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2026
And then he looked at Maya-Jade, wondering if she’d be weirded out by his mentally ill mother.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
"Of course the Sanchez years, travelled all over the world with him, been in some classic messes with him in the past partying. Now he's gone but I'll never forget him."
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
"I'll never forget it, she was like a child caught in the act of doing something they shouldn't be doing," he said.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
Why is it so much more enjoyable on a sixth or eighth viewing than “Club Kid,” a movie I’ll probably never see again?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
“My kids asked if I’ll still make pancakes,” Daly said in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
My stomach aches, and I’ll be surprised if Zara still has a voice.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
"There was a glint of fear. They were dour. This was something more than someone being ill. It was something that affected them."
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 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
"All of these people have had hepatitis C for more than three decades; some are very ill. A more proactive approach is critical to reaching and diagnosing those who remain unaware of their infection."
From BBC ● May 18, 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
“Please, I am very ill. It is my stomach. May I take the rest of the day off and visit the infirmary?”
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
Presswood lives with her adult son in a 93-year-old house in Galesburg, Ill., a small town not far from the Iowa border.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
The thinking was different for its new location in Wilmette, Ill., situated across from a CVS pharmacy and down the road from a Jewel-Osco supermarket.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
While the original location closed in 2020, there are still locations in Oakbrook, Ill., and Pittsburgh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
I was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Pawlikowski has said that he keeps returning to the past in his films because addressing our modern ills directly would be too daunting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
Time, perhaps, to question whether he's got the answers to the myriad ills of his team.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 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
He was fed up with traveling through exotic countries selling shark-fin aphrodisiacs, ginseng to cure all ills, carved Eskimo statues, stuffed Amazonian piranhas, and chinchillas for ladies’ coats.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
"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
“I shall be weaker and iller ever so much, sir, if I stop here,” said the boatswain.
From Syd Belton The Boy who would not go to Sea by Gordon Browne
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
But the opposite, for better or for worse, is also true: This is the first time in 30 years that he has had money of his own to play around with.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The families also say their grief has been made worse by how police have handled their loved ones' remains and belongings since the fire.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
In people with IBD, researchers have previously associated lower concentrations of 5-oxoETE in intestinal tissue with worse disease outcomes.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026
Raman, for better or worse, might be inclined to push-start the old jalopy, oil the gears and throw department heads overboard if they don’t deliver.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
‘So gradual you could sometimes convince yourself it wasn’t really happening. Till it started speeding up, and it felt like every time we saw her she’d taken another giant turn for the worse.’
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
Japan’s Nikkei closed 6.0% lower in its worst day since April 2025, while South Korea’s Kospi also finished 6.0% lower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
On Thursday, when the S&P 500 fell 4.36% — its worst one-day decline since April 4, 2025 — the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats Index declined only 1.4%.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
The most significant game of Angelina Anderson’s season was also her worst.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The four-year average from 2023 to 2026 is also expected to top 1.5C, the preferred limit set in the Paris Agreement to avert the worst impacts of climate change.
From Barron's ● Nov. 6, 2026
But Chase knew it was just the beginning of what, for some of them, would be the worst night of their lives.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
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