illness

[il-nis]

noun

1. poor health; sickness.

   He grew up in an environment known for poverty, illness, and little opportunity for education.

2. a specific sickness or disease, or an instance of such.

   Please be as accurate as possible in listing your childhood illnesses.

   Synonyms: infirmity, affliction, ailment

3. Obsolete.,  wickedness.

illness

/ ˈɪlnɪs /

noun

1. a disease or indisposition; sickness

2. a state of ill health

3. obsolete,  wickedness

Word History and Origins

Origin of illness¹

First recorded in 1490–1500; ill + -ness

Example Sentences

"The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme provides no-fault compensation to Service Personnel and veterans for injuries, illness and death caused by service."

From BBC

Those new weight-loss drugs will slash spending on obesity-related illness, so why is it so hard to get insurers to cover them?

From Los Angeles Times

What Peck found wasn’t a prophet or a symbol but a man full of contradictions: a writer wrestling with class, illness and empire, trying to fuse politics and art before his own time ran out.

From Los Angeles Times

But it means many people with conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, respiratory illneses, asthma and severe mental illness will no longer qualify.

From BBC

Doctors said they thought his problems could be related to drinking but they also tested for viral illnesses and cancer.

From BBC

Related Words

• ailment 
• breakdown 
• collapse 
• disability 
• disorder 
• disturbance 
• flu 
• ill health www.thesaurus.com
• malady 
• relapse 
• seizure 
• sickness 
• syndrome 
• virus 

When To Use

What does illness mean?

Illness is a state of poor health or sickness, as in I’ve had to miss a lot of work due to illness.The word illness is also commonly used to refer to a disease or instance of sickness.This sense of the word is often used when the type of disease is uncertain or unknown or when someone doesn’t want to specify what it is, as in They said that he is in the hospital with an illness, but they didn’t provide any further details. The word illness is based on the adjective ill, meaning sick.Example: The best way to avoid illness is to thoroughly wash your hands.