illness
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (1)illnesses
- impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organismSynonyms: unwellnessmaladysicknessOpposite wellnessType of ill health, unhealthinessKinds disease, collapse, ague, growth, toxemia of pregnancy, food poisoning, catastrophic illness, anuresis, indisposition, decompression sickness +5 more
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onerousadjective
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Ill′ness noun
Origin: From Ill.
1. The condition of being ill, evil, or bad; badness; unfavorableness. obsolete “The illness of the weather.” John Locke
2. Disease; indisposition; malady; disorder of health; sickness; as, a short or a severe illness.
3. Wrong moral conduct; wickedness. William Shakespeare
Synonyms: Malady; disease; indisposition; ailment. — Illness, Sickness. Within the present century, there has been a tendency in England to use illness in the sense of a continuous disease, disorder of health, or sickness, and to confine sickness more especially to a sense of nausea, or “sickness of the stomach.”
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54