disease

noun

dis·​ease di-ˈzēz 

1

: a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms : sickness, malady

infectious diseases

a rare genetic disease

heart disease

2

: a harmful development (as in a social institution)

sees the city's crime as a disease

3

obsolete : trouble

Synonyms of disease

• illness
• ailment
• ill
• disorder
• fever
• condition
• sickness

Examples of disease in a Sentence

He suffers from a rare genetic disease.

a disease of the mind

Thousands die of heart disease each year.

They are working to stop the spread of disease in rural areas.

The article cites intolerance as one of the most dangerous of society's diseases.

He sees crime as a disease that too often plagues the poor and disadvantaged.

Recent Examples on the Web

DeepMind’s AlphaFold, for example, has used to AI to make available new structures for more than 200 million proteins, opening new pathways for research into disease and medicine. — Belonging Forum, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026

The lab got its start with studies of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the 1900s, when ranchers and cattle were dying from the then-unknown disease. — CNN Money, 22 July 2026

The setback has provided Xavi with the rare opportunity to spend more time with his family, including his grandmother Rinia, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease around five years ago. — Jay Harris, New York Times, 22 July 2026

The city, in a statement, stressed that the discovery of dead bacteria in some buildings did not necessarily mean people in that building were ever exposed to the disease. — Robert McGreevy, FOXNews.com, 21 July 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English disese, from Anglo-French desease, desaise, from des- dis- + eise ease

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Phrases Containing disease

• acute disease
• Addison's disease
• Alzheimer disease
• Alzheimer's disease
• Bang's disease
• Bright's disease
• brittle bone disease
• caisson disease
• Canavan disease
• Canavan's disease
• Castleman disease
• Castleman's disease
• cat scratch disease
• celiac disease
• Chagas disease
• Christmas disease
• chronic disease
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• chronic wasting disease
• citrus greening disease
• communicable disease
• contagious disease
• corn smut disease
• coronary artery disease
• coronary disease
• coronary heart disease
• coronavirus disease
• Creutzfeld-Jakob disease
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Crohn disease
• Crohn's disease
• Cushing's disease
• deficiency disease
• Dutch elm disease
• factitious disease
• fifth disease
• flesh-eating disease
• foot-and-mouth disease
• gastroesophageal reflux disease
• Gaucher disease
• Gaucher's disease
• graft-versus-host disease
• Guinea worm disease
• hand, foot and mouth disease
• Hansen's disease
• heart disease
• hemolytic disease of the newborn
• Hodgkin's disease
• hoof-and-mouth disease
• Huntington disease
• Huntington's disease
• infectious disease
• inflammatory bowel disease
• Johne's disease
• Kawasaki disease
• Kawasaki's disease
• kissing disease
• Legionnaire's disease
• Lou Gehrig's disease
• Lyme disease
• mad cow disease
• Marek's disease
• mental disease
• milky disease
• milky spore disease
• Ménière's disease
• mucocutaneous lymph node disease
• neurodegenerative disease
• Newcastle disease
• new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• Paget's disease
• Paget's disease of bone
• Parkinson disease
• Parkinson's disease
• pelvic inflammatory disease
• Pierce's disease
• polycystic kidney disease
• Pott's disease
• Powassan disease
• Powassan virus disease
• prion disease
• pullorum disease
• social disease
• Tay-Sachs disease
• tsutsugamushi disease
• variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
• venereal disease
• von Willebrand disease
• von Willebrand's disease
• whirling disease
• Wilson's disease
• woolsorter's disease

Rhymes for disease

• agrees
• appease
• bougies
• burmese
• chemise
• chickpeas
• chinese
• cowpeas
• curies
• decrees
• degrees
• displease

Kids Definition

disease

noun

dis·​ease diz-ˈēz 

: an abnormal bodily condition of a living plant or animal that interferes with functioning and can usually be recognized by signs and symptoms : illness

diseased

-ˈēzd 

adjective

Medical Definition

disease

noun

dis·​ease diz-ˈēz 

: an impairment of the normal state of the living animal or plant body or one of its parts that interrupts or modifies the performance of the vital functions, is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms, and is a response to environmental factors (as malnutrition, industrial hazards, or climate), to specific infective agents (as worms, bacteria, or viruses), to inherent defects of the organism (as genetic anomalies), or to combinations of these factors : sickness, illness

called also morbus

compare health sense 1

diseased

-ˈēzd 

adjective