disease

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable or uncountable

   An illness of the body or mind that has a particular name, cause and set of symptoms.

   Grammar: Countable for a type (a rare disease) and uncountable for the general idea (disease spreads).

   Patterns

   • catch a disease
   • suffer from a disease
   • a disease of something

   Measles is a highly contagious disease.

   Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death.

   Clean water helps prevent the spread of disease.

2. 2nouncountable or uncountablebiology

   A harmful condition of a plant or animal caused by an infection or a fault in how it grows.

   Grammar: Used about crops and animals as well as people: a disease of wheat.

   Patterns

   • a disease of something
   • resistant to disease

   Dutch elm disease wiped out thousands of trees.

   The farmer lost half of the herd to a cattle disease.

   These tomato plants are bred to resist disease.

3. 3nouncountablefigurative

   A harmful problem in society or in a group that spreads and is hard to remove.

   Grammar: Figurative use: corruption is a disease in the system.

   Patterns

   • a disease of society

   Corruption is a disease that eats away at public trust.

   He called loneliness a quiet disease of modern life.

   Greed became a disease inside the company.

Word forms

Common combinations

infectious disease

Vaccines protect us from many infectious diseases.

chronic disease

Diabetes is a chronic disease that needs daily care.

contract a disease

Travelers can contract a disease from contaminated water.

spread a disease

Mosquitoes spread the disease between villages.

rare disease

Researchers are looking for a cure for the rare disease.

cure a disease

No treatment has yet cured the disease.

Synonyms and how they differ

illness

Illness describes being unwell and can cover a simple cold, while disease names a specific condition with its own cause.

condition

Condition is a softer, more general word that doctors use when they do not want to sound alarming.

disorder

Disorder suggests something wrong with how the body or mind functions, often without an outside germ.

ailment

Ailment is for minor or vague health problems, so it sounds much lighter than disease.

Opposites

Word family

diseased adjective

affected by a disease

disease-free adjective

showing no sign of illness

disease-resistant adjective

able to fight off a particular illness

Commonly confused: disease or decease?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “disease”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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