Illness is a state of being sick, when your body or mind is not working properly. It can be short-term, like a cold, or long-term, like a chronic disease.
From "ill" meaning "sick or bad" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ness." Earlier forms of "ill" came from Old Norse "illr" meaning "bad, harmful."
Illness isn’t just about germs—it’s also about how your body, mind, environment, and stress levels interact. Two people can catch the same virus, and one gets mildly sick while the other lands in bed, because their overall systems are different.
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