Synonyms of ill

ill 1 of 3

adjective

ˈil 

1

as in sick

affected with nausea

she grew ill from the constant rocking motion of the boat

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sick
• sickish
• nauseous
• queasy
• squeamish
• upset
• nauseated
• unsettled
• queazy
• sickly
• qualmish
• queer
• queerish
• peaky
• green
• peaked
• woozy

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• well
• healthy
• settled

2

as in harmful

causing or capable of causing harm

one of the ill effects of winter weather is the rapid spread of germs as people spend more time together indoors

Synonyms & Similar Words

• harmful
• dangerous
• adverse
• detrimental
• damaging
• bad
• hazardous
• injurious
• evil
• poisonous
• infectious
• baneful
• wicked
• deleterious
• pernicious
• hurtful
• prejudicial
• noxious
• mischievous
• baleful
• hostile
• nocuous
• deadly
• unsafe
• destructive
• infective
• lethal
• contagious
• threatening
• risky
• sinister
• venomous
• unfriendly
• ominous
• insidious
• fatal
• inimical
• perilous
• menacing
• pestilential
• unhealthy
• malignant
• unwholesome
• unhealthful
• unsound
• pestilent
• pestiferous
• killer
• ruinous
• parlous
• nasty
• imperilling
• jeopardizing
• imperiling
• noisome

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• safe
• innocent
• benign
• useful
• beneficial
• harmless
• good
• innocuous
• advantageous
• favorable
• healthy
• inoffensive
• propitious
• helpful
• healthful
• salutary
• wholesome
• anodyne
• palliative
• curative
• remedial
• salubrious
• hurtless
• sound
• secure
• benignant
• noninfectious
• nonpoisonous
• nonfatal
• nontoxic
• nondestructive
• noncorrosive
• nonlethal
• nonpolluting
• nonvenomous

3

as in poorly

temporarily suffering from a disorder of the body

since I'm ill, I guess that I'll just have to miss that dental appointment

Synonyms & Similar Words

• sick
• poorly
• bad
• down
• unwell
• indisposed
• dizzy
• ailing
• weak
• unhealthy
• sickened
• shaky
• out of sorts
• unsound
• peaky
• under the weather
• troubled
• peaked
• punk
• disabled
• fragile
• sickish
• run-down
• symptomatic
• lame
• nauseous
• diseased
• queasy
• feeble
• seasick
• frail
• afflicted
• sickly
• squeamish
• infirm
• nauseated
• challenged
• lousy
• woozy
• debilitated
• incapacitated
• cruddy
• weakly
• disordered
• feverish
• achy
• seedy
• queazy
• invalid
• airsick
• decrepit
• qualmish
• hypochondriacal
• halt
• carsick
• light-headed
• hypochondriac

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• well
• healthy
• whole
• sound
• healthful
• wholesome
• better
• hale
• cured
• fit
• conditioned
• able-bodied
• recovering
• improved
• strong
• tough
• hardy
• mending
• hearty
• well-conditioned
• robust
• lusty
• convalescing
• rugged
• recuperating
• stalwart
• thriving
• rehabilitated
• flourishing
• flush
• bouncing
• blooming
• chipper

4

as in poor

falling short of a standard

such ill behavior will not be tolerated

Synonyms & Similar Words

• poor
• unacceptable
• wrong
• lame
• bad
• deficient
• terrible
• horrible
• awful
• disastrous
• bastard
• pathetic
• wretched
• unsatisfactory
• flawed
• wanting
• dreadful
• sour
• brutal
• off
• from hunger
• suboptimal
• lacking
• substandard
• inferior
• crummy
• lousy
• inadequate
• wack
• subpar
• defective
• rotten
• miserable
• crumby
• bush
• punk
• dissatisfactory
• under par
• useless
• short
• paltry
• insufficient
• below par
• worthless
• gross
• vile
• deplorable
• lesser
• unspeakable
• abysmal
• detestable
• horrendous
• damnable
• atrocious
• stinky
• bum
• faulty
• gnarly
• common
• sucky
• shoddy
• egregious
• odious
• abominable
• crappy
• flagrant
• bush-league
• mediocre
• execrable
• reprehensible
• bitchin'
• low-grade
• shabby
• valueless
• meagre
• spare
• coarse
• miserly
• cheesy
• meager
• rubbishy
• trashy
• stingy
• mean
• scurrilous
• skimpy
• scanty
• low-rent
• villainous
• sleazy
• junky
• second-rate
• miscreant
• fake
• counterfeit
• niggardly
• phoney
• phony
• sham
• skimp
• cut-rate

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• okay
• adequate
• satisfactory
• acceptable
• all right
• fine
• tolerable
• decent
• OK
• better
• standard
• great
• respectable
• excellent
• passable
• perfect
• sufficient
• keen
• superior
• classical
• special
• prime
• noble
• wonderful
• divine
• classic
• splendid
• mean
• swell
• choice
• neat
• top
• dandy
• superb
• terrific
• grand
• par excellence
• marvellous
• heavenly
• marvelous
• boss
• fancy
• sterling
• exceptional
• sensational
• fabulous
• superlative
• slick
• first-class
• unsurpassed
• premium
• stellar
• banner
• average
• suitable
• useful
• minimal
• fair
• worthy
• capital
• nifty
• A1
• borderline
• mediocre
• high-grade
• middling
• groovy
• tip-top
• first-rate
• supernal
• top-notch
• high-test
• satisfying
• jim-dandy
• gratifying
• bang-up
• crackerjack
• unexceptional
• so-so

5

as in ominous

being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come

the abrupt breakdown of negotiations appears to be an ill omen for this ongoing hostage situation

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ominous
• sinister
• menacing
• threatening
• lonely
• bleak
• dire
• unfortunate
• direful
• dark
• depressive
• somber
• inauspicious
• desolate
• black
• grey
• murky
• depressing
• darkening
• portentous
• cold
• foreboding
• baleful
• minatory
• gray
• ill-boding
• morbid
• unfavorable
• doomy
• lonesome
• troubled
• dim
• cheerless
• miserable
• morose
• sombre
• sullen
• gloomy
• disconsolate
• hopeless
• chill
• saturnine
• discouraging
• comfortless
• forlorn
• dismal
• glum
• unlucky
• elegiac
• unpropitious
• dreary
• drear
• lugubrious
• evil
• cloudy
• unpromising
• malignant
• wretched
• disheartening
• sepulchral
• elegiacal
• funereal
• plutonian
• dreich
• malign
• godforsaken
• tenebrific
• tenebrous
• sunless
• Cimmerian
• ill-fated
• ill-starred
• star-crossed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• favorable
• promising
• encouraging
• benign
• bright
• prosperous
• hopeful
• golden
• unthreatening
• auspicious
• propitious
• heartening

ill

2 of 3

adverb

1

as in severely

in a manner so as to cause loss or suffering

in those days society treated debtors very ill, even going so far as to put them in prison

Synonyms & Similar Words

• severely
• harshly
• oppressively
• hard
• brutally
• sternly
• stiffly
• roughly
• hardly
• strongly
• abusively
• grimly
• aggressively
• pitilessly
• heartlessly
• inhumanly
• ruthlessly
• mercilessly
• unmercifully
• unfeelingly
• inhumanely
• callously
• savagely
• uncharitably
• insensitively
• unsparingly
• tyrannically
• firmly
• viciously
• obdurately
• insensately
• brutishly
• cold-bloodedly
• decidedly
• resolutely
• hard-heartedly
• determinedly
• toughly
• assertively
• gruffly

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• lightly
• mildly
• gently
• softly
• leniently
• kindly
• tenderly
• cordially
• lovingly
• benevolently
• graciously
• considerately
• clemently
• sympathetically
• charitably
• benignantly
• mercifully
• compassionately
• understandingly
• humanely
• tolerantly
• softheartedly

2

as in no

certainly not

you can ill afford to miss another day of work

Synonyms & Similar Words

• no
• never
• hardly
• scarcely
• none
• nothing
• nothing doing
• nowhere
• by no means
• on no account
• noway
• no way
• nowise
• near

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• certainly
• surely
• completely
• very
• positively
• absolutely
• definitely
• most
• extremely
• quite
• greatly
• highly
• terribly
• exceedingly
• clearly
• exceeding
• mighty
• immensely
• really
• enormously
• perfectly
• awfully
• rather
• utterly
• truly
• somewhat
• plainly
• awful
• unquestionably
• slightly
• mostly
• doubtless
• mightily
• hugely
• more or less
• assuredly
• unequivocally
• hands down

ill

3 of 3

noun

1

as in disease

an abnormal state that disrupts a plant's or animal's normal bodily functioning

chicken pox and the other ills that were once a fixture of childhood

Synonyms & Similar Words

• disease
• illness
• ailment
• fever
• sickness
• condition
• disorder
• infection
• bug
• attack
• ail
• malady
• distemper
• infirmity
• trouble
• complication
• plague
• complaint
• affection
• contagion
• distemperature
• contagious disease
• debility
• bout
• feebleness
• unsoundness
• fit
• spell
• lameness
• pestilence
• epidemic
• sickliness
• malaise
• unhealthiness
• weakness
• unwellness
• contagium
• decrepitude
• matter
• pip
• frailness
• pest

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• health
• wellness
• fitness
• soundness
• shape
• wholeness
• robustness
• wholesomeness
• heartiness
• healthiness
• fettle

2

as in evil

that which is morally unacceptable

idealistic people who try to cure all of our society's ills

Synonyms & Similar Words

• evil
• bad
• wrong
• badness
• sin
• evilness
• sinfulness
• immorality
• evildoing
• villainy
• iniquity
• deviltry
• vileness
• darkness
• wickedness
• cancer
• canker
• rot
• diabolism
• satanism
• atrocity
• heinousness
• squalor
• decay
• enormity
• corruption
• devilishness
• iniquitousness
• scurrility
• devilry
• degeneracy
• balefulness
• depravedness
• fiendishness
• tabu
• indecency
• atrociousness
• taboo
• perversion
• abomination
• depravity
• debauchery
• malefaction
• scurrilousness
• anathema
• pervertedness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• right
• good
• virtue
• morality
• goodness
• decency
• integrity
• honesty
• rectitude
• probity
• righteousness
• uprightness
• virtuousness

3

as in misfortune

bad luck or an example of this

the travelers merrily set off on their journey, scarcely imagining the ills that would befall them

Synonyms & Similar Words

• misfortune
• tragedy
• hardship
• trouble
• misery
• disaster
• adversity
• mishap
• accident
• knock
• suffering
• fate
• mischance
• trial
• misadventure
• blow
• catastrophe
• sorrow
• calamity
• circumstance
• evil
• doom
• distress
• defeat
• woe
• disappointment
• curse
• unhappiness
• tribulation
• failure
• affliction
• destiny
• casualty
• setback
• cataclysm
• portion
• body blow
• fizzle
• nonsuccess
• letdown
• lot

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• luck
• opportunity
• fortune
• chance
• stroke
• break
• strike
• hit
• success
• serendipity
• fluke
• achievement
• godsend
• windfall
• accomplishment

Examples of ill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

McCourt was born in 1930, and his family lived in the slums; his father was an alcoholic, and his mother seemed to be mentally ill. —The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2024

The WellChild Awards celebrate the incredible courage and achievements of seriously ill children and also spotlight the dedication of those who care for them, from parents to nurses. —Rachel Burchfield, People.com, 8 Oct. 2024

Adverb

My mother and grandmother used to conjure up similar brews when someone in the family fell ill or needed an extra boost. —Clarissa Wei, Bon Appétit, 16 Sep. 2024

Workers fell ill; firms shelled out money for acrylic shields at cash registers and for other anti-coronavirus measures. —Alina Selyukh, NPR, 9 Sep. 2024

Noun

In a scary, lonely world, beverages give us the illusion of control Why is our thirst for beverages that will cure us of our ills and extend our vitality so intense right now? —Keren Landman, Vox, 12 Sep. 2024

The mild, sunny climate, undeveloped landscape, and sense of freedom attracted both the ill and people who sought to heal them, setting the stage for the widespread practice of unorthodox medicine and fomenting the growth of fringe movements. —Hannah Goldfield, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024

Phrases Containing ill

• ill at ease
• ill will