ill
/ɪl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.72 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.
adj
Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.
adj
Example Sentences
- "St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it."
- "A man who is conscious of having an ill character, cannot justly be angry with those who neglect and slight him."
- "‘Go bring her. It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’"
- "He suffered from ill treatment."
- "ill manners; ill will"
- "[…]his lordship was out of humour. That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve. Stiff-rumped, that's what he was, always rubbing the rust, or riding grub, like he had been for months past."
Etymology
From Middle English ille (“evil; wicked”), from Old Norse íllr (adjective), ílla (adverb), ílt (noun), from Proto-Germanic *ilhilaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁elḱ- (whence Latin ulcus (“sore”), Ancient Greek ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound, ulcer”), Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “hemorrhoids”)). Cognates Cognate with Scots and Yola ill, Danish ilde (“bad”), Faroese, Icelandic illur (“bad, ill, wicked”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk ille (“bad”), Swedish illa (“badly; poorly”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
iller (comparative)
more ill (comparative)
illest (superlative)
most ill (superlative)
worse (comparative)
worst (superlative)
ills (plural)
ills (present, singular)
illing (participle, present)
illed (participle, past)
illed (past)
the Ill (canonical)