Words / C1

m-uh-LAYZ/məˈleɪz/

Malaise is a general unease, weakness, or sense of decline — in a person or in an institution: economic malaise, a mood of malaise. Illness names a disease; mood is everyday and thinner. Do not call a named injury malaise, and do not use it as a polite word for a missing night rota.

Meaning

A general feeling of unease, weakness, or decline, not a named illness.

Examples

• “Staff malaise after the unpaid night rotas showed in the survey, not in the slogan.”
• “Illness is a diagnosis. Unhappiness is everyday. Malaise is diffuse: something is wrong, but not yet a named fracture. A broken fire door is a defect, not malaise.”

Good to know

Diffuse unease / decline. Everyday: unhappiness. Contrast: a named illness or a named defect. Not a slogan for understaffing.

Near in meaning

mood

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