morbidity
2 synonyms for morbidity, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The presence of disease or ill health in a person or a population, including how often a condition occurs and how much harm it causes.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
morbidness
unwholesomeness
How to use morbidity
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
morbidity and mortality
reduce morbidity
maternal morbidity
morbidity rate
The health sense is standard in medicine and public health; the gloomy sense is literary.
Etymology
From Latin morbidus 'diseased', from morbus 'disease'.
Full origin of morbidity →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between morbidity and mortality?
Morbidity is about illness: who has a disease and how badly it affects them. Mortality is about death: how many people die and from what. A condition can have high morbidity and low mortality, as with arthritis.
What does comorbidity mean?
A comorbidity is an additional condition present alongside a main one, such as diabetes in a patient being treated for heart disease. Comorbidities often make treatment harder and outcomes worse.
How is morbidity measured?
Usually as incidence, the rate of new cases in a period, or prevalence, the share of a population living with the condition at a given time. Measures of disability and quality of life are also used.
