Meaning of 疾病
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- disease; sickness; ailment
How to use 疾病
疾病 is a formal, general word for disease, common in news, medicine, and public health writing. In everyday speech people usually say 病 or 生病 (shēngbìng) instead. Example: 这种疾病很难治疗。(Zhè zhǒng jíbìng hěn nán zhìliáo.) This disease is hard to treat.
Both 疾 (jí) and 病 (bìng) sit under the sickness radical 疒, the shape of a bed with someone lying in it. Two characters with the same sickbed on top give you the formal word for disease.
Common mistake: Learners often use 疾病 in casual talk, as in 我有疾病, which sounds stiff. Say 我病了 (wǒ bìng le) or 我生病了 instead. Also keep 疾 in the second tone (jí), not jì.
疾病 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
疾 jí · sickness · 10 strokes
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病 bìng · illness · 10 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 疾病.
| 病人 | bìngrén | sick person; patient |
| 生病 | shēngbìng | to fall ill |
| 看病 | kànbìng | to visit a doctor; to see a patient |
| 毛病 | máobìng | fault; defect |
| 病毒 | bìngdú | virus |
| 心脏病 | xīnzàngbìng | heart disease |
| 病房 | bìngfáng | ward (of a hospital); sickroom |
| 病情 | bìngqíng | state of an illness; patient's condition |
| 残疾 | cánjí | disabled; handicapped |
| 治病 | zhì bìng | to treat an illness |
| 残疾人 | cánjírén | disabled person |
| 发病 | fābìng | (of an illness) to occur; (of a person) to get sick; to fall ill |
Questions about 疾病
What does 疾病 mean?
疾病 (jíbìng) means "disease; sickness; ailment" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 疾病?
疾病 is made of 2 characters: 疾 (10 strokes), 病 (10 strokes). That is 20 strokes in total.
Is 疾病 an HSK word?
Yes. 疾病 is on the HSK 6 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
What is the difference between 疾病 and 毛病?
疾病 means a medical disease. 毛病 (máobìng) can mean a minor illness, but it more often means a fault or defect, like a problem with a machine or a bad habit.
Can 疾病 be used for a specific disease name?
Not usually. Specific diseases use 病 as a suffix, like 心脏病 (xīnzàngbìng) heart disease. 疾病 is used for disease as a category, as in 预防疾病 (yùfáng jíbìng) to prevent disease.