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Illness vs Harm - What's the difference?

illness | harm |

As a noun illness

is (countable) an instance of a disease or poor health.

As a proper noun harm is

, low german, derived from herman, meaning "army man".

illness

English

Noun

  • (countable) An instance of a disease or poor health.
  • (uncountable) A state of bad health or disease.
  • Synonyms

    * (instance) sickness * (state) sickness * See also

    harm

    English

    (wikipedia harm)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Injury; hurt; damage; detriment; misfortune.
  • * , chapter=13
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.}}
  • That which causes injury, damage, or loss.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • We, ignorant of ourselves, / Beg often our own harms .

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "harm": bodily, physical, environmental, emotional, financial, serious, irreparable, potential, long-term, short-term, permanent, lasting, material, substantial.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause injury to another; to hurt; to cause damage to something.
  • Derived terms

    * do no harm * harmer * harmless * harm's way * self-harm * unharmed

    Anagrams

    * ----