health·y

(hĕl′thē)

adj. health·i·er, health·i·est

1. Possessing good health: a healthy child.

2. Conducive to good health; healthful: healthy air.

3. Indicative of sound, rational thinking or frame of mind: a healthy attitude.

4. Sizable; considerable: a healthy portion of peas; a healthy raise in salary.

adv.

So as to promote one's health; in a healthy way: If you eat healthy, you'll probably live longer.

health′i·ly adv.

health′i·ness n.

Synonyms: healthy, wholesome, sound², hale¹, robust, well²
These adjectives refer to a state of good physical health. Healthy stresses the absence of disease or infirmity and is used of whole organisms as well as their parts: a healthy baby; flossed daily to promote healthy gums. Wholesome suggests a state of good health associated with youthful vitality or clean living: "In truth, a wholesome, ruddy, blooming creature she was" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
Healthy and wholesome are often extended to conditions or choices deemed conducive to good health: a healthy lifestyle; wholesome foods. Sound emphasizes freedom from injury, imperfection, or impairment: "The man with the toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound" (George Bernard Shaw).
Hale stresses freedom from infirmity, especially in elderly persons, while robust emphasizes healthy strength and ruggedness: "He is pretty well advanced in years, but hale, robust, and florid" (Tobias Smollett).
Well indicates absence of or recovery from illness: felt well enough to make the trip.

Usage Note: Some people insist on maintaining a distinction between the words healthy and healthful. In this view, healthful means "conducive to good health" and is applied to things that promote health, while healthy means "possessing good health," and is applied solely to people and other organisms. Accordingly, healthy people have healthful habits. However, healthy has been used to mean "healthful" since the 1500s, as in this example from John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education: "Gardening ... and working in wood, are fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business." In fact, the word healthy is far more common than healthful when modifying words like diet, exercise, and foods, and healthy may strike many readers as more natural in many contexts. Certainly, both healthy and healthful must be considered standard in describing that which promotes health.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

healthiness - the state of being vigorous and free from bodily or mental disease

good health

physical condition, physiological condition, physiological state - the condition or state of the body or bodily functions

haleness, wholeness - a state of robust good health

vim, vitality, energy - a healthy capacity for vigorous activity; "jogging works off my excess energy"; "he seemed full of vim and vigor"

blush, rosiness, flush, bloom - a rosy color (especially in the cheeks) taken as a sign of good health

glow, freshness - an alert and refreshed state

radiance - an attractive combination of good health and happiness; "the radiance of her countenance"

sturdiness - the state of being vigorous and robust

condition, shape - the state of (good) health (especially in the phrases `in condition' or `in shape' or `out of condition' or `out of shape')

healthiness

noun

The condition of being physically and mentally sound:

haleness, health, heartiness, soundness, wholeness.

Translations

صِحَّه، عافيَه

zdravost

sundhed

Gesundheit

salubrité

egészséges volta vkinek

heilnæmi

sağlığa yararlılıksıhhîlik

健康

healthiness

n (lit, fig) → Gesundheit f; (of bank balance) → gesunder Zustand

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

health

(helθ) noun

1. the state of being well or ill. He is in good/poor health.

2. the state of being well. I may be getting old, but so long as I keep my health, I'll be happy.

ˈhealthy adjective

1. (generally) having good health. I'm rarely ill – I'm really a very healthy person; My bank balance is healthier now than it used to be.

2. causing or helping to produce good health. a healthy climate.

3. resulting from good health. a healthy appetite.

4. showing a sensible concern for one's own well-being etc. He shows a healthy respect for the law.

ˈhealthiness noun

ˈhealth maintenance organization noun

(abbreviation HMO) (American) a system of health centers providing medical treatment, preventive care and hospitalization to its paying members.

health service

(the organization which runs) all the medical services of a country which are available to the public.

drink (to) someone's health

to drink a toast to someone, wishing him good health.