Malcolm Boyd
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A recipe: combine a handful of the blahs, a pinch of the blues, and maybe a soupçon of ennui, season generously with “under the weather,” and voila, you’ve got yourself the stew of sinking sensations known as malaise. Malaise, whose Old French ancestor was formed from the combination of mal (“bad”) and aise (“comfort”), has been a part of English since the mid-18th century. It originally referred to a vague feeling of weakness or discomfort accompanying the onset of an illness—a meaning still in use today when a virus or other malady starts producing symptoms—but has since broadened to cover a general, ominous sense of mental or moral ill-being.
Examples of malaise in a Sentence
Nancy Walecki, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2025
White-collar workers in China have developed their own vocabulary for this malaise.
—Lavender Au, The Dial, 7 Oct. 2025
The sentiment of style being sacrosanct at Old Trafford may have softened somewhat given their malaise in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson years, but the practicality that proved numbingly successful at Wembley that day appears to be taking hold in this season’s Premier League.
—Jordan Campbell, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2025
When pollsters YouGov first noticed this trend, and Newsweek also began writing about it, the malaise was predominantly confined to 18 to 24-year-olds.
—Jack Royston, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malaise
Cite this Entry
“Malaise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/malaise. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
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