ill
adjective
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illly.
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 father of two has since lost part of his bowel to cancer and remains too ill to work.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
When his father became ill in 1990, the crown prince became regent.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
In the 1990s, Fabares fell ill, but doctors struggled to pin down what the problem was.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
While Berenger attempts to atone for his ill grace at their last meeting, a frowzy, bedridden Jean becomes increasingly antagonistic—and animalistic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Father knocked on his door as we passed that noon, to see if someone were ill, but there was no answer.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
She has seen “The American President” and “The Prestige” 150 times each, but I’ll always push to watch some hidden gem that’s been on our list for the past decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
She owns about $100,000 of Consolidated Edison stock that is held at a company I’ll call Acme Corp., a well-known stock-transfer agent, as a paper stock certificate.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
"When I die, I'll really be getting to live then because I believe that there is a greater place than this".
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
"A couple of folks already told me that they might record a couple of my songs, so I'll be makin' enough money to get by," she sang.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
She softened her tone and added, “You’re a big girl now. Go ahead, I’ll watch you.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
"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
“Your friend was right to bring you here, but as I told him just before, you are very ill. That water will not cure the true sickness.”
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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
The Springdale, Ark.-based company said it is closing its Joslin, Ill., plant, which employs more than 2,000 people and can kill about 3,000 cattle a day, according to an internal company memo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
“I just wanted to try it out,” she said from the warning track at Robin Roberts Field in Springfield, Ill., where the league was set to play its first games this weekend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2026
Rivian currently builds its EVs at a plant in Normal, Ill., about three hours from Chicago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 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
But Gouzer said he expects Banksy’s market to keep rebuilding, thanks to a fresh influx of younger tech collectors and international wild-card buyers who admire the roguish way Banksy skewers societal ills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
In the video, Pratt stood outside Raman’s Silver Lake home and the city-owned Getty House in Hancock Park, where Bass lives, contending both are far removed from the urban ills that beset other Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
The closest he came, perhaps, was an oblique reference to the need to "support victims of some of the ills that, so tragically, exist in both our societies today",
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 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
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
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 Neil Munro
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
The reduction accounted for three-fourths of a 21% countywide decrease in RVs that kept the countywide 1.2% increase in homelessness from being worse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Making things worse, because of low physician reimbursement rates, Medicaid patients struggle to get appointments with specialists to be diagnosed in the first place.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Most own them inside a retirement account, in a bond fund or an exchange-traded fund, and that difference can make the problem worse rather than better.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
Europe is experiencing a fiscal crisis in some ways worse than America’s despite having the VAT.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Nobody would miss Miss Myrt, so Preacher Parr got them to miss the good old days when the winters were worse and the kids were better.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Using AI tools to decide on a Medicare Advantage plan may be complicated at best and inaccurate at worst, analysts said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
But no one should be judged by his worst moments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Alan Cameron, chairman of the Coalsnaughton Evacuees Residents Group, told BBC Scotland News residents had now been told that 46 properties in Benbuck View and Dunmoss View, the worst affected streets, were damaged beyond repair.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Coastal areas are typically spared the worst of heat waves, thanks to the cool marine layer and ocean.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
We took my father home, but the worst was not over.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
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.
