ill-usage

Questions about ill-usage

What does ill-usage mean?

ill-usage means "cruel or inhumane treatment".

How many syllables are in ill-usage?

ill-usage has 3 syllables: il-l-u-sage. The stress falls on "il".

What is another word for ill-usage?

Close synonyms include maltreatment, ill-treatment, abuse. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ill-usage a common word?

ill-usage is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.