Sick

How to spell sick

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sick

What does sick mean?

1. adjectiveAffected by illness; physically or mentally unwell.
2. adjectiveInformal term meaning impressive, excellent, or very good.

Sick in a sentence

• He called in sick and stayed home from the office.

• The skater landed a sick trick that stunned the crowd.

• The whole family fell sick after the long flight.

• His new car has a sick sound system.

Where does sick come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Sick descends from the Old English seoc, meaning 'ill, diseased, or weak', which traces back to a common Germanic ancestor that also gave Dutch ziek and German siech (an old word for 'sickly'). For most of its history the word simply meant being unwell, and in British English it narrowed to the specific sense of being about to vomit, as in 'feeling sick'. American English kept the broader meaning of generally unwell, which is why the two dialects can talk past each other with this small word. In the late twentieth century a slang reversal gave sick the positive meaning of 'excellent' or 'impressive', a pattern that echoes earlier flips like 'bad' meaning good. Because the spelling has stayed compact and phonetic, the main trap is simply remembering it ends in a plain 'ck' rather than anything fancier.

How the word is built

• sick (from Old English seoc: ill, diseased); a single root word with no affixes