malady
Americannoun
-
maladies
plural
-
any disorder or disease of the body, especially one that is chronic or deepseated.
- Synonyms:
- indisposition, ailment, complaint, affliction, sickness, illness
-
any undesirable or disordered condition.
social maladies; a malady of the spirit.
noun
-
any disease or illness
-
any unhealthy, morbid, or desperate condition
a malady of the spirit
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of malady
1200–50; Middle English maladie < Old French, equivalent to malade sick (< Late Latin male habitus literally, ill-conditioned; see mal-, habit 1) + -ie -y 3
Explanation
A malady is an illness, like a malady that keeps you home, sick in bed for days, or something that causes you to have trouble or to suffer, like jet lag — a malady that affects travelers. Malady, pronounced "MAL-uh-dee," comes from the Latin words male, meaning "bad or ill" and habitus for "have, hold." When you have a malady, it is like something bad is holding you, such as an illness — the common cold: a malady of winter. Some bad habits cause maladies, such as never having any money — the malady of people who spend freely, not thinking of the future.
Vocabulary lists containing malady
Take the Bad with the Good: Bene and Mal
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The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Kite Runner
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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:
Some believed that the latest epidemic was of a "mystical malady", a common belief in some remote areas of the DRC.
From Barron's ● May 24, 2026
The word “nostalgia” first emerged to describe what doctors back then considered a malady, thinking it unwise to long for the past.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
You are also suffering from a very modern malady: decision paralysis.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 17, 2026
By treating actual adults—the chat participants weren’t teenagers—with kid gloves, they contribute to the cultural malady of infantilization.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
Paranoia was always the first malady to contend with when entering a new school.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The odds of these maladies rise dramatically in your 80s, but serious health challenges are not uncommon in your 70s, as I sadly saw with my late sister earlier this year.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 23, 2026
Nearly a week after being rescued near Big Bear Lake, Jackie — half of a celebrity bald eagle couple — remains in critical condition as veterinarians continue to puzzle over the cause of her maladies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
As Valentin pledges more of himself to his party, he is plagued by nightmares and eerie maladies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
"They treat a whole host of maladies," said Thomas Patton, a professor at New York state's Union College who has studied Myanmar's mystics.
From Barron's ● Dec. 21, 2025
Through the thirties and into early wartime, his natural vigor had kept these maladies at bay, but the sheer magnitude of the demands on his time and energy finally had caught up with him.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
