US /ˈɪlsəm/ UK /ˈɪlsəm/
adj

Meanings

  1. 1
    adj

    characterized by illness, harm, or evil; sickly, harmful, or baleful (rare)

    The old sailor blamed illsome writers for filling young readers with ominous tales.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 adj · characterized by illness,... sicklyharmfulbalefulunwholesome
Opposites
Word family
Related forms illillness

Etymology

Formed from ill + the adjective-forming suffix -some ("characterized by"). Ill historically covers sickness, harm, misfortune, and moral evil, which accounts for the rare adjective's range from sickly or unhealthy to baleful or disagreeable.

Topics

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