sickness unto death
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.58 in modern English
27
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Despair, profound discontent, or a similar persistent debilitating malaise of the mind, spirit, or soul that produces a decline in mental, physical, or societal health and that may culminate in death or dissolution.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Kafka's illnesses are more existential than physical; they are like Kierkegaard's "sickness unto death.""
- "Still, many observers of the orchestra, including some players themselves, continue to detect a malaise in the institution. Many critics, especially those deeply involved as composers and performers of new music, diagnose the trouble as a sickness unto death."
- "These films . . . are evidence of a deep cultural malaise. The need to make them and the desire to consume them are symptoms of a contemporary sickness unto death."
- "[O]ur "high" or "academic" or "avant-garde" culture is in a state of crisis. This crisis is not a healthy one, but a sickness unto death, a decadence that threatens to destroy our society."