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disease

Saydi-ZEEZ/dɪˈziz/UK/dɪˈziːz/

Pluraldiseases

Verbdiseases, diseasing, diseased

5 meanings of disease

Practice

  1. 1
    illnessnouncountable or uncountable
    An abnormal condition in a person, animal, or plant that causes discomfort or interferes with normal function, unlike an injury, which usually happens all at once.

    Public health programs aim to reduce the spread of disease in crowded cities.

    Veterinarians check the herd regularly for early signs of disease.

    Usagea disease names one kind (a rare disease); with no article it means illness in general (the spread of disease).

    Similarillness, sickness, ailment, disorder, infection

    Oppositehealth, wellness

  2. 2
    social problemnounfigurativelycountable
    A harmful or abnormal condition affecting society, people's attitudes, or ways of living.

    Corruption became a disease eating away at the nation's institutions.

    Critics described runaway consumerism as a disease infecting modern life.

    Similarcancer, plague, scourge, blight, malaise

    Note

    The metaphor tends to bring its medical vocabulary along with it. The Urantia Book (1955) calls war not a disease but a symptom, and names the real disease as "the virus of national sovereignty." The figure is strongest when it presents a social harm as something that spreads, takes hold slowly and calls for a cure, rather than as a single bad event.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • The Urantia Book was first published in 1955. urantia.org
    • The Urantia Book describes war as a symptom and identifies the real disease as “the virus of national sovereignty.” urantia.org
  3. 3
    make sickverbtransitive
    To infect a person, animal, or plant with a disease.

    Similarinfect, contaminate

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    verbobsolete
    To cause unease in someone; to annoy or irritate.
    Whyll he yett ſpeake there cam won from the rulers off the ſynagogis houſſe which ſayde to hym: Thy doughter is deed diſeaſe not the maſter.
    1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt (Tyndale Bible)

    Similartrouble, bother, annoy, disquiet

    Note

    This verb survives only in older texts, where it means to trouble someone. In Tyndale's New Testament of 1526, "disease not the master" means do not bother him, and Spenser's double burden "did him sore disease." It takes the troubled person as its direct object and carries the same sense as the old noun of disquiet. In modern writing it would be misread as "infect."

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Tyndale's complete New Testament was first published in 1526. gutenberg.org
    • Tyndale's translation contains “disease not the master,” meaning do not trouble him, at Luke 8:49. gutenberg.org
    • Spenser wrote that a double burden “did him sore disease,” in The Faerie Queene, Book II, Canto II, stanza 12. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
    • The obsolete verb means to cause unease or annoyance and takes the affected person as its direct object. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 5
    nounarchaic
    The state of being uneasy, troubled, or vexed.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of disease apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

It comes from Middle English disese, borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French desaise, formed from des- plus aise ('ease'). By its surface form it is simply dis- + ease. It displaced the native English words adle (from Old English ādl) and cothe (from Old English coþu), both meaning 'disease'.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts