disease
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihzeezSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈziz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
medicine
An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired.
figuratively
Any abnormal or harmful condition, as of society, people's attitudes, way of living etc.
medicine
An impairment of health or a condition of abnormal functioning
A lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.
verb
To infect with a disease.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired.
Used this way, disease is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use disease
- “Eating healthy food helps prevent many common diseases.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.