Meaning & use
malady
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Meanings
nouncountableformalold-fashioned
An illness or disease, especially one that is long lasting or hard to define.
Grammar: Countable: a strange malady; several maladies.
Patterns
- suffer from a malady
- a malady of something
The old doctor could not name the malady that kept the child in bed.
A mysterious malady swept through the village.
He suffered from a long-term malady that sapped his strength.
nouncountablefigurative
A serious flaw or problem in society or an organization.
Grammar: Figurative: the maladies of modern life.
Patterns
- a malady of something
- cure a malady
Corruption was the great malady of the old regime.
The report named poor management as the company's main malady.
Critics see boredom as the malady of modern city life.
Word forms
| plural | maladies |
|---|
Common combinations
- a mysterious malady
- A mysterious malady kept the doctors puzzled.
- suffer from a malady
- She suffers from a rare malady.
- a social malady
- Loneliness is a social malady.
- cure a malady
- No one could cure the malady.
- a common malady
- A cold is a common malady in winter.
Synonyms and how they differ
- illness
- Illness is the everyday word, whereas malady sounds old-fashioned or literary.
- ailment
- Ailment suggests something minor, while malady can be more serious.
- disease
- Disease usually implies a medically defined condition, but malady is vaguer.
- affliction
- Affliction stresses suffering and hardship more than malady does.
Opposites
Word family
- malaise noun
- a vague feeling of being unwell; shares the prefix mal-, meaning bad
- malnutrition noun
- poor health from a bad diet; also built on mal-
- maladjusted adjective
- badly adjusted to one's surroundings
- maladies noun
- plural of malady
Commonly confused: malady or melody? malady or malaise?
malady vs melody
Melody is a tune in music, with a similar rhythm of sound but a different meaning.
malady vs malaise
Malaise is a general feeling of discomfort, whereas malady is a specific illness or problem.
Practice
The villagers could not identify the strange ___ that had made so many people ill.
Choose one answer.
A malady is an illness. Melody sounds similar but refers to music.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “malady”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.