malaise

American  

[ma-layz, -muh-, ma-lez] / mæˈleɪz, -mə-, maˈlɛz /

noun

• malaises
  plural

1. 

   a condition of general bodily weakness or discomfort, often marking the onset of a disease.

2. a vague or unfocused feeling of mental uneasiness, lethargy, or discomfort.

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malaise British  

/ mæˈleɪz /

noun

1. a feeling of unease or depression

2. a mild sickness, not symptomatic of any disease or ailment

3. a complex of problems affecting a country, economy, etc

   Bulgaria's economic malaise

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• malaises
  plural

Etymology

Origin of malaise

First recorded in 1760–70; from French, Old French, equivalent to mal- + ease

Explanation

If you are experiencing malaise, chances are you are feeling blue or looking green. Malaise is a slump; you're not feeling your best — either mentally or physically. Mal is French for "bad," and aise means "ease." When experiencing malaise, ease yourself down on the couch to recover. Malaise is frequently used figuratively to describe slumps that other things go through as well. The 20-year economic malaise in Japan is one example, but you'll also hear of educational malaise, political malaise, and even "a general malaise." Wherever you turn, there's malaise.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

malaise malaises

He noted that Morrissey’s malaise mirrors the sentiment of many ranchera songs, also citing that his effeminate onstage persona is a perfect subversion of Mexican machismo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

De Zerbi, though, defended their summer window despite their current malaise.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

With many Americans already feeling pinched after postpandemic inflation drove up the prices of goods and services, that could be a recipe for even greater economic malaise.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

The food-and-beverage industry has been cranking out new products to cut through consumer malaise and compete with retailers’ store-brand products, which are cheaper but at times just as innovative.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026

Poor Whitcomb, sighed the chaplain, and blamed himself for his assistant’s malaise.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Rather, the key to overcoming the malaises of alienation is about changing the social conditions or epidemiology of this alienation and moving societies beyond common indignities, gross inequities, and identity politics.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2024

For these two analysts, the key to overcoming the malaises of social alienation have nothing whatsoever to do with catching up, getting even with, or hating one’s enemies, adversaries, abusers, oppressors, and so on.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2024

But despite her placidity, Poplavskaya has leapfrogged to prominence in recent years, profiting from the malaises or caprices of others.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2011

When Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the Social ists took power late in 1964, the pound was in one of its deeper malaises.

From Time Magazine Archive

And they will add that Thackeray, another man of genius, had also his malaises of art, was likewise a man with the mortal failings implied in the word.

From Masters of the English Novel A Study of Principles and Personalities by Richard Burton

Related Words

• angst
• anxiety
• despair
• discomfort
• disquiet
• doldrums
• illness
• pain
• unease
• uneasiness
• weakness