malaise

noun

Definition of malaisenext
1
as in illness
the condition of not being in good health Her symptoms included fatigue and general malaise.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words
2
as in fear
a general feeling that things are bad or wrong They blame our modern malaise on overuse of technology.

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of malaise Voter malaise and campaign fatigue aren’t new, but something feels different to me this time. — Heather Lamarre, The Conversation, 14 Oct. 2026 That economic malaise has since been compounded by the Iran war. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026 Below, find all the Hollywood backlash to general audience’s Digger malaise. — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 9 Oct. 2026 In the early 2010s, Tetreault was touring with his band Hundred Waters and feeling some malaise after playing roughly 300 shows behind their eponymous 2012 debut. — Katie Bain, Billboard, 8 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for malaise
Recent Examples of Synonyms for malaise
  1. illness
  2. fear
  3. disease
  4. concern
  5. disorder
  6. anxiety
  7. sickness
  8. worry
Noun
  • Large companies can spread that risk across many people; at a small business, one serious illness or accident can quickly raise costs.
    — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Shigellosis is a gastrointestinal illness caused by a group of bacteria called Shigella.
    — Devika Rao, TheWeek, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of illness
Noun
  • Fortune recently reported on wealthy parents’ growing fear that their fortunes will sap their children’s drive.
    — Molly A. Wallace, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Coupled with job-displacement fears from AI, opponents now point to the facilities as a physical symbol of who benefits from the boom and who gets stuck with the bill.
    — Luke Fountain, CNBC, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of fear
Noun
  • Depending on the species, that could mean breeding animals in captivity and releasing them, restoring habitat, managing disease, or controlling invasive species.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Beeswax, honey, and pollen each possess their own particular antimicrobial and chemical properties that, taken together, repel disease and encourage helpful fungi.
    — Amanda Erickson, STAT, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of disease
Noun
  • Mental health experts have voiced concerns about chatbots’ sycophancy, lack of clinical nuance, and ability to reinforce delusional beliefs.
    — Andrew R. Chow, Time, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The deal drew concern from legislators and delivery drivers, who worried about reduced competition.
    — Jay Ganglani, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of concern
Noun
  • The progressive nervous system disorder affects more than a million Americans.
    — David K. Li, NBC news, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Research has shown that the therapeutic use of horseback riding can improve balance and coordination in people who have neurological conditions like cerebral palsy, and lessen the symptoms for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
    — Ondine Cohane, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of disorder
Noun
  • Research has also found that across generational groups, greater user tendency to engage in social comparison, together with greater maladaptive ways of coping with emotions, is associated with more symptoms of anger, anxiety, and depression.
    — Ashwini Nadkarni, Time, 24 Oct. 2026
  • The market for profiting off male body anxiety is nothing new.
    — Gavin Francis, The New York Review of Books, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of anxiety
Noun
  • This aligns with the sickness of our culture - lack of gratitude.
    — Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Despite undergoing a blood transfusion, which briefly provided a glimpse of hope, Jackie continued to suffer setbacks in her recovery due to the sickness, which remained a mystery until Wednesday's announcement by California wildlife officials.
    — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of sickness
Noun
  • Melanie Lawrence, a 68-year-old independent, worries about wells going dry in her area near Willcox, where the groundwater grew so depleted that the land started to crack.
    — Hannah Knowles The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
  • In an interview earlier this fall with NPR, Los Angeles County's top voting official, Dean Logan, alluded to those worries.
    — Miles Parks, NPR, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of worry

Browse Nearby Words

malady
malaise
malapropos
See all Nearby Words

Podcast

Cite this Entry

“Malaise.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malaise. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of disparate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All