ill
noun/ɪl/
/ɪl/
- [plural] people who are ill
- Even the seriously ill cannot get tests done immediately.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- [usually plural] (formal) a problem or harmful thing; an illness
- social/economic ills
- the ills of the modern world
- [uncountable] (literary) harm; bad luck
- I may not like him, but I wish him no ill.
Word OriginMiddle English (in the senses ‘wicked’, ‘malevolent’, ‘harmful’, and ‘difficult’): from Old Norse illr ‘evil, difficult’, of unknown origin.
Check pronunciation:
ill