โรค

Explanation

โรค is a general noun for a disease or medical disorder affecting the body or mind. The pattern เป็นโรค means “to have a disease.” A disease name can follow it, as in เป็นโรคเบาหวาน (“to have diabetes”). Common combinations include รักษาโรค (“treat a disease”) and ป้องกันโรค (“prevent disease”). โรค is often combined with another word to name a disease or category, as in โรคหัวใจ (“heart disease”). It can also appear in expressions that figuratively describe an excessive habit, such as โรคบ้างาน (“workaholism”). When diseases are counted, โรค itself can serve as the classifier, as in หนึ่งโรค (“one disease”).

Usage

It is commonly used when discussing diagnoses or chronic conditions, in hospitals and other medical settings, and in news or public-health information about treatment, prevention, infection, and outbreaks.

Caution

For simply saying that someone feels unwell, ไม่สบาย is usually more natural than เป็นโรค. เป็นโรค more clearly suggests that the person has a disease or medical condition. Be careful with โรคจิต. Although it has a clinical sense related to mental illness, it is also used colloquially as an insulting label for a creepy or sexually deviant person.

1 disease synonyms

• ความเจ็บป่วย

  ความเจ็บป่วย emphasizes the state or experience of being ill. โรค more readily refers to a particular disease or diagnosable disorder and is commonly used in disease names.

• โรคภัยไข้เจ็บ

  โรคภัยไข้เจ็บ is a broader and somewhat more formal expression for illnesses in general. โรค is shorter and is standard in both everyday speech and medical contexts.