ill health noun

1. the poor condition of a person’s body or mind
   • ● He retired early on grounds of ill health.
   Synonyms illnessillness

   • sickness
   • ill health
   • trouble

   These are all words for the state of being physically or mentally ill.

   • illness the state of being physically or mentally ill
   • sickness illness; bad health:
     • ● I recommend you get insurance against sickness and unemployment.

   illness or sickness?Sickness is used especially in contexts concerning work and insurance. It is commonly found with words such as pay, leave, absence and insurance. Illness has a wider range of uses and is found in more general contexts.

   • ill health (rather formal) the state of being physically ill or having lots of health problems:
     • ● She resigned because of ill health.
     Ill health often lasts a long period of time.
   • trouble illness or pain:
     • ● heart trouble.
     When trouble is used with this meaning, it is necessary to say which part of the body is affected.

   Patterns

   • chronic illness/sickness/ill health
   • to suffer from illness/sickness/ill health/heart, etc. trouble

   Want to learn more?

   Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Collocations: app.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲

illness something wrong with your health which makes you feel ill:
Her husband was in hospital for six months with a serious illness.
disease a particular illness, especially one that spreads to other people easily or that affects one part of your body:
childhood diseases such as measles and chickenpox
heart disease
infection an illness that is caused by bacteria or a virus:
His cough got worse and worse and became a chest infection.
condition a health problem that affects you permanently or for a long time:
a medical condition such as asthma
a heart condition
problem [usually after a noun] something that is wrong with a particular part of your body or your health in general:
a serious back problem
health problems
trouble [singular, only after a noun] illness or pain that affects a particular part of your body:
I’ve had a bit of stomach trouble.
disorder formal an illness that prevents a particular organ of your body from working properly, or affects the way you behave:
a liver disorder
a blood disorder
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder.
bug informal an illness that spreads to other people very easily but that is not very serious:
There’s a bug going round at school and a lot of the children are absent.
a flu bug
complaint medical an illness that affects a particular part of your body, especially one that is not very serious – used by doctors:
a minor skin complaint
Deakin suffers from a back complaint called arachnoiditis.
ailment /ˈeɪlmənt/ formal an illness that affects a particular part of your body, especially one that is not serious:
People often go to their doctor about relatively minor ailments.
The ointment is used to treat ailments such as small wounds and insect bites.
sickness the state of being ill, especially when it stops you working:
absence from work due to sickness
ill health formal the state of being ill, usually for a long period of time:
Research shows that there is a link between air pollution and ill health.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

illness the general state of being ill:
Stress is emerging today as a major cause of illness.
sickness the state of being ill, especially when it stops you working:
absence from work due to sickness
ill health formal the state of being ill, usually for a long period of time:
Research shows that there is a link between air pollution and ill health.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲