Indisposition

//ɪnˌdɪspəˈzɪʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mild illness, the state of being indisposed. countable, uncountable

    "I was scarce sooner recovered from my indisposition than Amelia herself fell ill."

  2. 2
    a certain degree of unwillingness wordnet
  3. 3
    A state of not being disposed to do something; disinclination; unwillingness. countable, uncountable

    "He argued that the progress of wealth could be impeded not only by an indisposition to produce, but also by an indisposition to consume […]"

  4. 4
    a slight illness wordnet
  5. 5
    A bad mood or disposition. countable, uncountable

    "1597, Francis Bacon, Essays Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves?"

Synonyms

All synonyms
reluctanceabnormalityacute diseaseaffectionafflictionailment

Example

More examples

"An apology, founded upon a slight indisposition, was alleged as an excuse for the absence of Miss Ashton, whose seat appeared unoccupied."

Etymology

From Middle English indisposicioun, from Middle French indisposicion.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.