English Reference
noun

sickness

n.
US /ˈsɪknəs/ UK /sˈɪknəs/ sick·ness UK spelling sickness's, sicknesses

  1. 01 B1 Intermediate Medicine

    the feeling that you are going to vomit.

    a sensation of nausea or the act of vomiting. Often used in compound words like 'travel sickness' or 'sea sickness'.

    Simple

    The bumpy car ride gave the children a feeling of sickness.

    In context

    She suffered from severe morning sickness during the first trimester, making it difficult to maintain her usual work schedule.

    nauseaqueasiness
  2. 02 C2 Proficiency Technical Science

    using a rare or difficult grammar form in the wrong place.

    the analogical misuse of a rarer or marked grammatical case in place of a more common or unmarked one.

    Simple

    The professor explained how certain language learners develop a sickness in their use of case endings.

    In context

    The paper argues that the observed sickness in the dialect's case system is a result of prolonged contact with neighboring languages.

    Usage

    Used specifically within the field of linguistics to describe certain types of morphological errors.

    Teacher's tip

    This is a highly specialized term in linguistics; general learners will never encounter it outside of academic study.


From Middle English sikness, from Old English sēocnes. By surface analysis, sick + -ness.

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

This entry
Origin Old English sēocnes
Level A2 · Elementary
Frequency Frequent
Updated