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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ail.

To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈeɪ̯l/[ˈeɪ̯l]

  1. To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)

    transitive
    Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.

  2. To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English eilen, from Old English eġlan, eġlian (“to trouble, afflict”), from Proto-West Germanic *aglijan, from Proto-Germanic *aglijaną (“to trouble, vex”), cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (agljan, “to distress”).

noun/ˈeɪ̯l/[ˈeɪ̯l]

  1. An ailment; trouble; illness.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English eilen, from Old English eġlan, eġlian (“to trouble, afflict”), from Proto-West Germanic *aglijan, from Proto-Germanic *aglijaną (“to trouble, vex”), cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (agljan, “to distress”).

adj/ˈeɪ̯l/[ˈeɪ̯l]

  1. Painful; troublesome.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English eyle, eile, from Old English eġle (“hideous, loathsome, hateful, horrid, troublesome, grievous, painful”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aglus, “hard, difficult”).

noun/ˈeɪ̯l/[ˈeɪ̯l]

  1. The awn of barley or other types of corn.

    West-Country
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English eile, eyle, eiȝle, from Old English eġl (“an ail; awn; beard of barley; mote”), from Proto-Germanic *agilō (“awn”), related to *ahaz (“ear (of grain)”). Cognate with German Achel, Egel, Ägel.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.