ill·ness

[il-nis]
noun
1.
unhealthy condition; poor health; indisposition; sickness.
2.
Obsolete, wickedness.

Origin:
1490–1500; ill + -ness


1. ailment, affliction, infirmity.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
illness (ˈɪlnɪs) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a disease or indisposition; sickness
2.  a state of ill health
3.  obsolete wickedness

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10
Illness is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

illness ill·ness (ĭl'nĭs)
n.
Disease of body or mind; poor health; sickness.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

illness

a harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism. A diseased organism commonly exhibits signs or symptoms indicative of its abnormal state. Thus, the normal condition of an organism must be understood in order to recognize the hallmarks of disease. Nevertheless, a sharp demarcation between disease and health is not always apparent

Learn more about illness with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
Yet even when the disease is caused by the same mutation, it can provoke
  dramatically different degrees of illness.
Usually the illness lasts from three to six days, and people recover quickly.
Consumers are reminded that properly storing, handling and cooking eggs should
  help prevent food-borne illness.
Mental illness was closely correlated with physical symptoms that were a
  consequence of glandular action.
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