noun
- An often persistent bodily disorder or disease; a cause for complaining.
adjective
- Affected by an impairment of normal physical or mental function.
- usage: "ill from the monotony of his suffering"
- synonyms: sick
- Resulting in suffering or adversity.
- usage: "ill effects"; "it's an ill wind that blows no good"
- Distressing.
- usage: "ill manners"; "of ill repute"
- Indicating hostility or enmity.
- usage: "you certainly did me an ill turn"; "ill feelings"; "ill will"
- Presaging ill fortune.
- usage: "ill omens"; "ill predictions"; "my words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven- P. B. Shelley; "a dead and ominous silence prevailed"; "a by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government"
- synonyms: inauspicious, ominous
adverb
- (adv.) ((`ill' is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well)
- usage: "he was ill prepared"; "it ill befits a man to betray old friends"; "the car runs badly"; "he performed badly on the exam"; "the team played poorly"; "ill-fitting clothes"; "an ill-conceived plan"
- Unfavorably or with disapproval.
- usage: "tried not to speak ill of the dead"; "thought badly of him for his lack of concern"
- synonyms: badly
- With difficulty or inconvenience; scarcely or hardly.
- usage: "we can ill afford to buy a new car just now"
WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
| APA | WordNet. (2010). ill. Retrieved September 22, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/ill/definitions/1176057 |
| Chicago | WordNet. 2010. "ill" http://smartdefine.org/ill/definitions/1176057 (accessed September 22, 2026). |
| Harvard | WordNet 2010, ill, Smart Define, viewed 22 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/ill/definitions/1176057>. |
| MLA | WordNet. "ill" 23 October 2010. Web. 22 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/ill/definitions/1176057> |