morbidity

/mɔrˈbɪɾɪɾi/

/mɔˈbɪtɪti/

Other forms: morbidities

Morbidity is the state or quality of being unhealthful, overly somber, or unwholesomely gloomy. Some opposites of morbidity are cheerfulness and optimism.

The word morbidity comes from the word morbid, which means "characteristic of or caused by disease." The morbidity of a disease is the number of cases that occur in a specified population. For example, the morbidity rates for polio plummeted in the 20th century. Morbidity is also a state of mind or a quality that is focused on death, disease, and gloom. The literary works of Edgar Allan Poe are known for their morbidity.

Definitions of morbidity

1. noun

   the quality of being unhealthful and generally bad for you
   synonyms: morbidness, unwholesomeness

   types:

   harmfulness, noisomeness, noxiousness

   the quality of being noxious

   perniciousness, toxicity

   grave harmfulness or deadliness

   deadliness, lethality

   the quality of being deadly

   jejuneness, jejunity

   quality of lacking nutritive value

   putrescence, rottenness

   the quality of rotting and becoming putrid

   unhealthfulness

   the quality of promoting poor health

   fatality

   the quality of being able to cause death or fatal disasters

   insalubriousness, insalubrity

   the quality of being insalubrious and debilitating

   type of:

   quality

   an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone
2. noun

   the relative incidence of a particular disease
   type of:

   incidence, relative incidence

   the relative frequency of occurrence of something
3. noun

   an abnormally gloomy or unhealthy state of mind
   “his fear of being alone verges on morbidity”

   synonyms: morbidness

   type of:

   cognitive state, state of mind

   the state of a person's cognitive processes