ill vs mal-

ill

adv
  • Not well; imperfectly, badly 

adj
  • Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick. 

  • Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way. 

  • Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel. 

  • Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be. 

  • Having an urge to vomit. 

  • Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard. 

noun
  • A physical ailment; an illness. 

  • Harm or injury. 

  • PCP, phencyclidine. 

  • Evil; moral wrongfulness. 

  • Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity. 

verb
  • To behave aggressively. 

mal-

prefix
  • incorrect 

  • incomplete, unfinished 

  • unintentional, mistaken, accidental 

  • unpleasant 

  • poorly, deficiently 

  • not 

  • unhealthy, harmful 

  • evil 

How often have the words ill and mal- occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )