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Ailing

Disease
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An adjective meaning ill, weakened, or troubled by poor health; it may describe a person, animal, body part, or figuratively, a failing condition.

Detailed Definition
Ailing describes a body, community, season, or spirit touched by illness without naming a precise malady. In poetry, it can make a landscape seem physically vulnerable, as when an ailing orchard bears scant fruit or an ailing city coughs beneath smoke. The term suits meditative, elegiac, and pastoral verse, where gradual decline matters more than diagnosis. Its broadness lets private pain echo through weather, architecture, and memory.
Example
Example in poetry:
The ailing moon limped through clouds, giving illness to the night sky; An ailing orchard shed its leaves before autumn, making disease a metaphor for decline; “Ailing” can describe a speaker whose body mirrors a troubled landscape; The poet calls the old city ailing to suggest neglect, poverty, and slow decay
Additional Notes
Often describes a person, community, or landscape weakened by illness. Contrast with vigorous or flourishing.
Also Known As
Ill Sick Unwell Infirm Sickly
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