Meanings
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1
adj
Not in good health; sick.
She felt too ill to go to work today.
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2
adv
In a bad, harmful, or improper way.
It is unkind to speak ill of the dead.
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3
adj
Harmful or causing trouble.
Smoking has serious ill effects on your health.
Thesaurus
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”).
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