indisposition

I1N1D2I1S1P3O1S1I1T1I1O1N1
US/ɪnˌdɪspəˈzɪʃən/

noun

A mild illness, the state of being indisposed.

RareScrabble 16

Meanings

nounindisposition (countable and uncountable, plural indispositions)

plural indispositions

  1. countableuncountableA mild illness, the state of being indisposed.

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

    1751 December (indicated as 1752), Henry Fielding, chapter 7, in Amelia, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] A[ndrew] Millar […], →OCLC
    2 more examples

    She began not to understand a word they said, and was obliged to plead indisposition and excuse herself.

    1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume (please specify |volume=III or IV), London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC

    During those three hellish days at Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee was badly suffering from a severe case of diarrhea after having eaten too many cherries, an indisposition—given his ill-considered and ultimately amateurishly fatal decision for the Confederacy to attack from the front (and relatively below) on July 3, 1863—that cost his army a victory that day, an incredible mismaneuver and unstrategic folly that became, as it turned out, the turning-point of the entire war that led to the full and final defeat of the South.

    2017, Alexander Theroux, Einstein's Beets, page 514
    1. countabledatedeuphemisticuncountablePeriod, menstrual state.
  2. countableuncountableA state of not being disposed to do something; disinclination; unwillingness.

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

    1989, Thomas Robert Malthus, John Pullen, Principles of Political Economy, volume 2, page 435
  3. countableuncountableA bad mood or disposition.
    1 more example

    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 & antonyms

nouna certain degree of unwillingness

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Frenchindisposicion
  2. Middle Englishindisposicioun
  3. Englishindisposition

From Middle English indisposicioun, from Middle French indisposicion.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian неразположение
  • неразположение (nerazpoloženie)mild illness
Catalan indisposició
  • indisposiciómild illness
French indisposition
  • indispositionmild illness
German Unpässlichkeit
  • Unpässlichkeitmild illness
Greek αδιαθεσία
  • αδιαθεσία (adiathesía)mild illness
Hungarian gyengélkedés
  • gyengélkedésmild illness
Irish meath-thinneas
  • meath-thinneasmild illness
Italian indisposizione
  • indisposizionemild illness
Portuguese indisposição
  • indisposiçãomild illness
Spanish achaque, indisposición
  • achaquemild illness
  • indisposiciónmild illness
Cite this entry
APA

indisposition. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indisposition

MLA

“indisposition.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indisposition. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “indisposition,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/indisposition.

Source: indisposition on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.