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:
After more than three months in hospital, Matthew remains critically ill.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
What’s the use of punishing a terminally ill man?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
But although some patients, once medicated, could live rewarding and independent lives, funding for reliable community treatment never materialized, leaving many of the most seriously ill unsupported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
Care for an ill person under 40 was particularly high — $4,700 more per year than the out-of-pocket average.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026
Most of the crew were seriously ill or injured: swollen legs, missing digits, labored breathing, feverish.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
"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
I’ll hit the gym and then, if we’re having a “family Sunday,” then that’ll mean we’re getting up and heading out to breakfast, either at El Torito or Brent’s Deli in the Valley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
“My kids asked if I’ll still make pancakes,” Daly said in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
I’ll end with a prediction I hope doesn’t come true.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Tomorrow, when we come back from the gallery, I’ll let Grandma know.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"They'd make me feel ill. I couldn't even look at it."
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 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 was genuinely surprised to see how many of you wrote letters to the judges, telling him I was mentally ill. Like my mother,” she said.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2024
“She’s ill. We got swept down in the flood and we been trying to look after her. But...”
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Authorities in Cook County, Ill., recovered part of a stolen shipment of Red Bull worth $300,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Rivian produced 19,751 vehicles at its facility in Normal, Ill., and delivered 19,248 vehicles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
While the original location closed in 2020, there are still locations in Oakbrook, Ill., and Pittsburgh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
When Sean Burke and Alyse Stanley bought their first home in Rockford, Ill., in October 2023, the average 30-year mortgage rate had just crossed 8%.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
I was born on March 9, 1943 in Chicago, Ill. U.S.A.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
But our fragmented healthcare system is also a factor in so many of the ills that afflict ordinary American households within the sphere of “affordability.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
They fear the uncertainties of artificial intelligence and suffer the ills of inflation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
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
As Norway advance, is Wright correct about Scottish football's ills?
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
Ma believed that her bone soup could cure all kinds of ills.
From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat
"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
A lot of lassies like yon will be iller to keep together than a flock of sheep.
From The Lady of the Shroud by Bram Stoker
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
Blaze is just one of the illest low heads.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2021
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
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
The study failed to meet its predetermined statistical requirement for demonstrating that the calcium scan approach was not meaningfully worse than conventional risk assessment.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
For better or for worse, it’s forever tied to Callie and her free, self-possessed spirit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
Traders making highly leveraged bets got crushed, but so did those who doubted a recent pullback in AI stocks would get worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
I shrugged a little and tried not to make it any worse.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
Nasdaq futures rose 1.8% after the index lost $2.5 trillion in market value Thursday in its worst day since April 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Garrett had no tackles in the 27-7 defeat and said afterward that his performance was “the worst version” of himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026
The 28 October accident on the Madrid-Seville high-speed line was one of the worst railway disasters in Europe this century.
From BBC ● 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
But now the worst possible thing is happening and I’m alone.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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