illness
noun
Simple meaning
An instance of a disease or poor health.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ilnuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɪlnəs
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
countable
An instance of a disease or poor health.
uncountable
A state of bad health or disease.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An instance of a disease or poor health.
Used this way, illness is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in medicine or healthcare contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use illness
- “He had to stay home from school because of a sudden illness.”
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Severe illness requiring prolonged hospitalization or recovery.
A disease affecting the respiratory system.
A medical condition of uncertain origin that affected many veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.
A mental disorder characterized by episodes of mania and depression.
Any disease of the mind.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “illness” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.