A malady is an illness or disease, especially one that lasts for a while or keeps coming back. When a doctor diagnoses a patient's malady, they're identifying what's making that person sick. Your grandfather might joke about his “various maladies” when talking about his arthritis and occasional headaches.

The word often sounds a bit old-fashioned or formal, like something from a story set long ago. In historical novels, characters might suffer from mysterious maladies that doctors struggled to treat. You might read about a village afflicted by a strange malady, or a knight weakened by some unnamed illness.

Malady can also describe problems that aren't physical sicknesses. A society might suffer from the malady of widespread distrust, or a school system might struggle with the malady of outdated textbooks. When used this way, malady suggests something wrong that's been going on for a while and needs fixing, like a chronic condition rather than a sudden problem.

The word carries a slightly serious tone. You wouldn't call a simple cold a malady, but you might use it for something more significant or persistent, whether it's a physical ailment, a social problem, or any condition that troubles and persists.