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PlainSpell

ill

/ɪl/adjective, adverb, noun, verb

ill is spelled I-L-L: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, ill means “Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in ill?

Letters3: I-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ill?

Ill appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ill?

  • /ɪl/

Ill has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ill.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ill?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as ill.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lil.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ill

  • iller comparative
  • more ill comparative
  • illest superlative
  • most ill superlative
  • worse comparative
  • worst superlative
  • ills plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • illing participle, present
  • illed participle, past
  • 'ills plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ill mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteEvil; wicked (of people).

  2. 2

    archaicMorally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.

  3. 3

    Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.

    He suffered from ill treatment.

  4. 4

    Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard.

    ill manners; ill will

  5. 5

    Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.

    mentally ill people

  6. 6

    Nauseated; having an urge to vomit.

    Seeing those pictures made me ill.

  7. 7

    slangSublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way.

    This is the illest beat I've ever heard.

  8. 8

    slangExtremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be.

    That band was ill.

adverb

  1. 1

    Not well; imperfectly, badly

    Such jealousy ill becomes her; she can ill afford another gaffe like that.

noun

  1. 1

    Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity.

    Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear.

  2. 2

    Harm or injury.

    I wouldn't want you to do me ill.

  3. 3

    Evil; moral wrongfulness.

  4. 4

    A physical ailment; an illness.

    I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills.

  5. 5

    USslangPCP, phencyclidine.

noun

as ILL
  1. 1

    Initialism of interlibrary loan.

verb

  1. 1

    datedslangTo behave aggressively.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ill in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmalade (in poor health, suffering from a disease), écœuré, écœurée (having an urge to vomit), s (in hip-hop slang: sublime), mal (not well)
Germankrank, siech (in poor health, suffering from a disease), übel, schlecht (having an urge to vomit), Übel (a problem)
Portuguesedoente (in poor health, suffering from a disease)
Spanishenfermo, mareado (in poor health, suffering from a disease), mal (having an urge to vomit)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ill come from?

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”)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ill