What does morbidity mean?
Morbidity is a formal noun with two principal uses. In medicine and public health, it means illness or disease, often the incidence or prevalence of a condition within a population; phrases such as “morbidity and mortality” distinguish sickness from death. It can also refer more broadly to an unhealthy condition or, in literary language, to a gloomy preoccupation with disease, death, or unpleasant subjects. The word is especially useful in health reporting, where a population may have low mortality but substantial morbidity because many people are ill without dying from their condition. Outside medical and literary contexts, morbidity is less common than more everyday words such as illness and disease. Its association with death can make it sound grim, although that impression is strongest in the word’s rarer figurative sense rather than in its standard clinical use.
nounMorbidity is the state of being ill or unhealthy, especially the incidence or prevalence of disease in a population. More rarely, it refers to a morbid or gloomy quality.
- The state of being ill or affected by disease.
- The incidence or prevalence of disease in a population.
- The quality of being morbid, especially gloomily preoccupied with death or disease.
"The study found substantial morbidity associated with untreated diabetes in the region."
"Rapid treatment reduced both morbidity and mortality among patients with the infection."
"She lingered in the morbidity of her thoughts, imagining every possible catastrophe."
The plural is used when referring to distinct diseases, complications, or forms of illness.
"The report compared the morbidity profiles of the two patient groups."
Morbidity is the measure of illness; mortality is the measure of death.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does morbidity come from?
Morbidity entered English in the early 17th century through French morbidité, which was derived from Latin morbiditas. Both forms ultimately come from Latin morbidus, meaning “sick” or “diseased,” from morbus, meaning “disease.” The same Latin root also underlies morbid, morbidly, morbidness, and the less common morbific, meaning disease-producing.
How morbidity is actually used
Morbidity is a formal and especially medical term. In public health, it commonly refers to the frequency of disease, while its literary sense, meaning gloominess or a preoccupation with death, is comparatively rare. There is no significant regional difference between British and American usage.
Easily confused with morbidity
Morbidity refers to illness or disease, whereas mortality refers to death or the rate at which deaths occur.
Morbidity is a noun meaning illness or gloominess, while morbid is an adjective describing something gloomy, gruesome, or related to disease.