Ague is an archaic term for fever. The translation in Leviticus 26:16 (R.V., "fever") of the Hebrew word kaddah'ath, meaning "kindling", i.e., an inflammatory or burning fever. In Deut. 28:22 the word is rendered "fever."

It was also used in Old English as a word for malaria.

T. S. Eliot wrote of 'The ague of the skeleton' in Whispers of Immortality .