Meaning & use

ague

noun·Advanced

An old-fashioned term for a fever, especially malaria, marked by alternating chills and sweating.

See it in a sentence

In the swampy lowlands, many settlers suffered from ague every summer.

The old diary described his father's death from a persistent ague.

A note on using this word

Ague is archaic and now appears mainly in historical fiction or older texts, rather than in modern medical speech.

Words with a similar meaning

fevermalaria

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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