From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmaladymal‧a‧dy /ˈmælədi/ noun (plural maladies) [countable] 1 formalPROBLEM a serious problem in society2 old useMI an illness
Examples from the Corpus
malady• Some doctors still regard menopause as a malady.• Her chronic malady, the result of a golf injury, has provided its share of good fortune, however.• The airline suffers from a common malady - lack of cash.• Later, looking back, I wondered if for a brief hour my malady had blanketed me from consciousness of the present.• Public health could not be restricted to the surveillance and prevention of specific maladies.• It is a strange malady that strikes following a stunning election victory and tests your ability to avoid injudicious and arrogant actions.• He determined not to yield to the malady, striding about the deck all night, refusing to give in.• The malady is marked by nasty kicks, retaliatory shoves, hard words and worse.• Between 1937 and 1941 he discovered drugs which mitigated the worst symptoms of these maladies.• In Paris a cabby would have commiserated upon the unfortunate malady affecting his legs, but the Viennese were different.Origin malady (1200-1300) Old French maladie, from malade “sick”, from Latin male habitus “in bad condition” 