as in disease
an abnormal state that disrupts a plant's or animal's normal bodily functioning
half of the staff is out sick with the usual wintertime ails
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to bother
to trouble the mind of; to make uneasy
parents who were at a loss to explain what was ailing their normally vivacious daughter
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of ail
Ben Morse, CNN, 17 Feb. 2024
In the age of generative AI, the theft of huge troves of medical information might be even more dangerous, as our health records wind up in data sets that enable off-the-books innovation in exploiting our ails.
—Steven Levy, WIRED, 12 Jan. 2024
Johanna Read, Forbes.com, 29 Apr. 2025
The Celtics removed Porzingis from their injury report Saturday — a positive sign for the ailing big man — but kept him in his bench role.
—Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 10 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for ail
Noun
What’s more, the age-old phrase the team’s fans have used to describe Detroit’s recent ails – ‘SOL’ or same old Lions – seems to have been banished for now.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 17 Feb. 2024
In the age of generative AI, the theft of huge troves of medical information might be even more dangerous, as our health records wind up in data sets that enable off-the-books innovation in exploiting our ails.
—Steven Levy, WIRED, 12 Jan. 2024
Verb
Spa Manager Claudia Perez and her team are extremely knowledgeable and will have the ideal recommendations to address whatever ails you.
—Johanna Read, Forbes.com, 29 Apr. 2025
The Celtics removed Porzingis from their injury report Saturday — a positive sign for the ailing big man — but kept him in his bench role.
—Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 10 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for ail
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ail
Noun
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The fungal disease does not spread from person to person, according to the CDC.—
Julia Gomez,
USA Today,
23 May 2025
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The Mayo Clinic says the disease is most often diagnosed when people are in their mid-60s.—
Christie D’Zurilla,
Los Angeles Times,
23 May 2025
Verb
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That doesn’t mean the implication doesn’t bother him.—
Jack Harris,
Los Angeles Times,
15 May 2025
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Or Xander Schauffele, the defending PGA champion who is surely not bothered by the lack of attention on him early this week.—
Brody Miller,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
Noun
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The threadbare plot is set in motion when Tesfaye’s screen-self (henceforth referred to as Abel) loses his voice while touring, a real-life incident forced here into heavy-handed metaphor as an existential ailment symptomatic of his deeper issues with himself and women.—
Charles Bramesco,
IndieWire,
15 May 2025
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Djokovic struggled with his fitness and had a reputation for pulling out of matches with various ailments.—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
Verb
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Democrats and some Republicans are also alarmed over the ethics of accepting such an expensive gift from a foreign country.—
Jeremy Bogaisky,
Forbes.com,
14 May 2025
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The rapid expansion of the Camp House Fire, Jenkins Creek Fire and Munger Shaw Fire has alarmed officials.—
Anna Skinner,
MSNBC Newsweek,
14 May 2025
Noun
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With this move, the FDA will limit the vaccine’s availability later this year to older adults and those who may be at risk of severe illness, Reuters reported.—
Saleen Martin,
USA Today,
23 May 2025
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Advertisement Advertisement The group’s report presents four main drivers of chronic childhood illness, laying particular blame on the food children eat and their daily habits.—
Alana Semuels,
Time,
22 May 2025
Verb
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However, some 3,000 years ago—around the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age—newcomers to the area disturbed the burial site by removing parts of the mound and displacing stones.—
Eli Wizevich,
Smithsonian Magazine,
22 May 2025
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Solar flares can disturb Earth's ionosphere, for instance, briefly disrupting high-frequency radio signals and leading to brief radio blackouts on the daylit side of the planet during the flare event.—
Daisy Dobrijevic,
Space.com,
22 May 2025
Noun
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On one level, this flurry of proposals to ills that have been festering in California and domestically for years is more posturing than problem solving.—
Dominic Patten,
Deadline,
5 May 2025
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Protectionists presented tariffs as the essential policy to quicken the development of manufactures as well as a remedy to the social ills that afflicted the emerging industrial working class.—
Made by History,
Time,
28 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Its dual narrative concerns a set of perverse medical experiments about human consciousness performed in an early-20th-century Argentine sanitorium and, a century later, an outsider artist who carries forth the legacy of these trials in grotesque ways.—
The Atlantic,
The Atlantic,
15 May 2025
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This was not the first time school officials had been concerned with the boy’s behavior.—
Dalia Faheid,
CNN Money,
15 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ail.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ail. Accessed 27 May. 2025.
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