malaise

/məˈleɪz/

/məˈleɪz/

Other forms: malaises

If you are experiencing malaise, chances are you are feeling blue or looking green. Malaise is a slump; you're not feeling your best — either mentally or physically.

Mal is French for "bad," and aise means "ease." When experiencing malaise, ease yourself down on the couch to recover. Malaise is frequently used figuratively to describe slumps that other things go through as well. The 20-year economic malaise in Japan is one example, but you'll also hear of educational malaise, political malaise, and even "a general malaise." Wherever you turn, there's malaise.

Definitions of malaise

1. noun

   physical discomfort (as mild sickness or depression)
   synonyms: unease, uneasiness

   type of:

   discomfort, uncomfortableness

   the state of being tense and feeling pain
2. noun

   a vague sense of unease or dissatisfaction
   type of:

   dissatisfaction

   the feeling of being displeased and discontent
3. noun

   a state of dysfunction and stagnation, as of a society
   type of:

   state

   the way something is with respect to its main attributes