Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use ill in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, adverb, noun

Ill means evil; wicked (of people). Example: “He suffered from ill treatment.”

Examples of ill by meaning

adjectiveMorally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.

  • It is ill to keep a lady waiting.’1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 2

adjectiveIndicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.

  • He suffered from ill treatment.

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

  • ill manners; ill will
  • That was the way Chollacombe described as knaggy an old gager as ever Charles had had the ill-fortune to serve.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

adjectiveUnwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick.

  • mentally ill people
  • I've been ill with the flu for the past few days.
  • Sue made herself ill through overwork.

adjectiveNauseated; having an urge to vomit.

  • Seeing those pictures made me ill.

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

  • This is the illest beat I've ever heard.

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

  • That band was ill.

adjectiveUnwise; not a good idea.

  • They arrested everybody—and it is ill to resist a drunken Tommy with a loaded rifle!1914, Indian Ink, volume 1, page 32

More sentences with ill

  • A legislative remedy might be some harsh medicine; is that cure worse than the ill?From the entry medicine
  • Seeing how ill she was, we sent for a doctor at once.From the entry send
  • She lost so much weight while she was ill that she became a skeleton.From the entry skeleton
  • I was quite ill for a while, but latterly seem to have returned to normal.From the entry normal
  • As he was too ill to accept the award, his brother represented him at the ceremony.From the entry represent
  • To harass good people is no different than speaking ill of them.From the entry harass
  • I feel a bit ill, so I'm going to go lay down for a while.From the entry lay down
  • I had been ill in health, but am now a convalescent.From the entry convalescent
  • I was very ill today; I kept bringing up everything I ate.From the entry bring up
  • He was held in ill repute, no one would trust him enough to do business with him.From the entry ill repute
  • I have to cancel my holidays due to continuing ill health.From the entry ill health
  • His excuse about his daughter being ill again rings true, to me.From the entry ring true
  • He told me he couldn't come because his budgie had fallen ill. A likely story!From the entry likely story
  • With the farmer ill, the corn remained uncarried in the fields.From the entry uncarried
  • I felt ill, but some fresh air and iced water set me to rights.From the entry to rights
  • I'd been to've been ambassador, but fell seriously ill.From the entry be
  • He ate too much cake and so he fell ill.From the entry so
  • The ghost's appearance was an ill omen.From the entry omen
  • It ill behooves my mother to complain.From the entry behoove
  • The losing side bore no ill will toward the winners.From the entry ill will
  • We were shocked to see how ill she was.From the entry shocked
  • Whether good or ill betide you, trust in yourself.From the entry betide
  • The bishop's renunciation was on account of his ill health.From the entry renunciation
  • When the teacher’s back was turned, the class clown would hold his stomach as if he were ill.From the entry as if
  • Many people become ill by ingesting foodborne bacteria.From the entry foodborne
  • I was speaking ill of Fred; little did I know that he was right behind me, listening in.From the entry little did one know
  • They took ill within 3 hours.From the entry take
  • He fell seriously ill at 21 with pneumonia and doctors feared for his life.2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian. From the entry brush
  • Early on, when I fell seriously ill, he cared for me devotedly.2025 February 28, Laura Esther Wolfson, “Rules for Staying Close to Exes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry cad

Meaning of ill

  1. adjective Evil; wicked (of people).
  2. adjective Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy.
  3. adjective Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel.

Full definition of ill

Questions about ill in a sentence

How do you use ill in a sentence?
Ill is used as an adjective, adverb and noun. For example: “He suffered from ill treatment.”
What is a short sentence with ill?
“mentally ill people”
What does ill mean?
Ill means evil; wicked (of people).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ill (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use ill in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/ill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.