ill
Usage
What are other ways to say ill?
The adjective ill is more mild than evil or wicked, and it appears mainly in certain fixed expressions: ill will; ill-natured. Evil applies to that which violates or leads to the violation of moral law: evil practices. Wicked implies willful and determined doing of what is very wrong: a wicked plan. Bad is the broadest and simplest term: a bad man; bad habits.Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Of those, 65 were domestically acquired, meaning infected people became ill either in the state or after traveling within the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
“Over the years, tens of thousands of first responders, construction workers, volunteers, and survivors have become ill and tragically, many have died.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Dame Esther, who is 86 and terminally ill with cancer, said that though she had planned to end her life at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, she is now too frail to travel.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
While deathly ill in 1373, a devout 30-year-old English mystic known as Julian of Norwich had a series of 16 visions of the divine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
For the most part, husbands left wives, even physically or mentally ill wives, to run the home and raise the children as they saw fit.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
What drives societal ills or ignites a social movement?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
As Dan Kois illustrates in this ode to kicking back with friends, spending unstructured time together is a blessedly simple cure to the ills of modern life.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026
Ultimately, a ballot initiative won’t cure the ills that plague healthcare in the United States, said the Lown Institute’s Saini.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026
But Gouzer said he expects Banksy’s market to keep rebuilding, thanks to a fresh influx of younger tech collectors and international wild-card buyers who admire the roguish way Banksy skewers societal ills.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
Without equality, eugenics would inevitably falter on the false premise that social ills, such as vagrancy, pauperism, deviance, alcoholism, and feeblemindedness were genetic ills—while, in fact, they merely reflected inequality.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
"If you have a generally iller population, that's not good for the residents, it's not good for productivity, it's not good for the economy.'"
From BBC ● May 25, 2023
This gave him an unnatural appearance and made him look iller than ever.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 30, 2019
He got iller and iller and iller, and of course he died in the beginning of 2015 when some of the other things had started appearing in the press.
From BBC ● Nov. 23, 2016
Still, in his older, iller years, he's become kinder, even to himself, and though he wished he'd done some stuff better, he could live with it.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 23, 2012
He's looking iller and older every day, and tells me himself that he never sees her now; it's too piteous to hear him, dear old thing.
From The War-Workers by E.M. Delafield
The Black neighborhoods like Baldwin Hills Estates, Ladera Heights and View Park all sit hillside with some of the illest views in the city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
His wife was told she should prepare for the worst, with staff describing her husband as "one of the illest people they'd ever seen".
From BBC ● May 21, 2024
Rapper Travis Scott told his nearly 12 million followers on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Monday “might be one for the illest days in women’s sports historyyyyyyy.”
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
Blaze is just one of the illest low heads.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2021
A lingring death maye auaile my soule, but it is the illest of ills that can befortune my bodie.
From The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse by Edmund Gosse
"It can get worse, but it's already bad now," she told the same forum.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
Ben said his wife "never gave up" trying to fight her illness but by January 2025 her health had gotten "progressively worse".
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
But most other assets, including stocks, would be hurt even worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
To make matters worse, Clear Lake has struggled with dramatic blooms of toxic algae, spurred by stretches of hot summer days with little wind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The house was in worse shape than the barn.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Fittingly, it was the red-hot Stark who drained her putt on the 17th for a 2&1 win that meant Europe would at worst be level heading into the singles.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
The worst news for workers in the report is that real hourly average wages fell 0.1% in August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
It’s hard to fault Stafford for not making a play that his body just can’t make, but it’s fair to wonder if the travel and short turnaround impacted his worst big game in several years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
As we mourn the dead from 9/11 on the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack to ever take place on American soil, we have to consider if he succeeded.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
I said, surprising myself because I thought it was the worst thing I could say, but it was true.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
