What does "ill" mean?

1. (sick or unwell) feeling sick or not healthy. 2. (bad or harmful) bad, harmful, or showing unkind feelings. 3. (impressive or cool) very good, cool, or impressive. 4. (badly or poorly) done in a bad way or not well. 5. (problems or trouble) problems, troubles, or things that cause suffering.

ill — meaning, definition & examples

Q: Is it correct to say "The ill man stayed in bed."?

No — say "The sick man stayed in bed.". In modern English, 'ill' is usually used after a verb like 'be' or 'feel'. Use 'sick' before a noun.

Word

01sick or unwell

A2 · Elementary

adj. feeling sick or not healthy.

adj. suffering from a physical or mental ailment; unwell. In British English, it is the standard term for 'sick', whereas in American English, it often implies a more serious or chronic condition.

“He felt ill after eating the seafood and had to go home early.”

“She has been seriously ill for several weeks, requiring constant medical supervision and a strict regimen of rest.”

Pitfall

The ill man stayed in bed.

The sick man stayed in bed.

In modern English, 'ill' is usually used after a verb like 'be' or 'feel'. Use 'sick' before a noun.

Synonyms

sick unwell poorly

Antonyms

well healthy

02bad or harmful

B2 · Upper Intermediate Formal

adj. bad, harmful, or showing unkind feelings.

adj. harmful, hostile, or unkind in nature or intention. Often used in fixed expressions like 'ill will' or 'ill effects'.

“The medicine had some ill effects that made him feel very tired.”

“Despite their professional rivalry, he bore his competitor no ill will and even congratulated her on the promotion.”

Synonyms

bad harmful hostile

Antonyms

good kind

03impressive or cool

C1 · Advanced Slang

adj. very good, cool, or impressive.

adj. highly impressive, skillful, or excellent. This sense is a contronym where a word with a negative literal meaning is used positively.

“That skateboard trick was ill; I've never seen anyone do that before.”

“The DJ dropped an ill beat that immediately filled the dance floor with energy.”

Synonyms

cool great excellent

Antonyms

wacklame

04badly or poorly

B2 · Upper Intermediate

adv. done in a bad way or not well.

adv. in a poor, inadequate, or unfavorable manner. Frequently used as a prefix in hyphenated compounds like 'ill-equipped' or 'ill-informed'.

“The hikers were ill-prepared for the sudden change in weather.”

“The company was ill-equipped to handle such a massive influx of customer complaints during the product recall.”

Synonyms

badly poorly inadequately

Antonyms

well

05problems or trouble

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Formal · Literary

n. problems, troubles, or things that cause suffering.

n. a problem, difficulty, or misfortune; often used in the plural to describe societal issues.

“The politician promised to fix the social ills of the city.”

“The essay examines the various social ills that contributed to the economic decline of the region in the late twentieth century.”

Synonyms

problem trouble misfortune

Antonyms

benefit blessing

From Middle English ille, an adjective meaning "evil; wicked", from Old Norse íllr (adjective), ílla (adverb), and ílt (noun). The Norse forms descend from Proto-Germanic \ilhilaz, which in turn derives from Proto-Indo-European \h₁elḱ-, a root meaning wound or ulcer: Latin ulcus ("sore"), Ancient Greek ἕλκος hélkos ("wound, ulcer"), and Sanskrit अर्शस् árśas ("hemorrhoids") all share this origin.

The cognates have kept rougher company than English ill. Scots and Yola preserve ill in the same spelling; Danish has ilde ("bad"), Norwegian ille ("bad") in both standard forms, Swedish illa ("badly; poorly"), and Faroese and Icelandic share illur ("bad, ill, wicked"). The semantic range across Germanic suggests the word carried moral and physical senses from the start: a wound, a wrong, a thing that festers.

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

NOUN

illness(A2)

ADJECTIVE

ill(A2)