gaunt
Thin from suffering
Gaunt describes a person or animal that is extremely thin in a way that suggests illness, exhaustion, or prolonged hardship.
The word conveys more than mere slenderness—it implies a haggard, worn appearance where bones are visible and flesh seems stretched tight.
His gaunt face showed the toll of months in the hospital.
Applied to landscapes or buildings, gaunt suggests a bleak, desolate bareness: gaunt cliffs rising from the sea.
Of or like bones
- bonyThin, with protruding skeleton
- wastedUsed without good result
- malnourishedLacking proper nutrition
- starvedSuffering extreme hunger
cadaverous · scrawny · undernourished · thin · haggard · shriveled · atrophied · rawboned
Bleak and abandoned
- bareLacking any covering
- starkSevere and unadorned
- bleakDreary and without cheer
- emptyHolding nothing inside
lifeless · inhospitable · windswept · treeless · exposed · stripped · rugged · craggy
Dreary and without cheer
- starkSevere and unadorned
- forbiddingIntimidatingly stern or hostile
- severeExtremely harsh or strict
- harshUnpleasantly severe or rough
austere · stern · somber · gloomy · desolate · dreary · cheerless · hard
Unhealthily lacking color
- wanPale and unwell-looking
- ashenPale, grayish-white
- sallowUnhealthily yellowish complexion
- paleLacking color intensity
anemic · unhealthy · jaundiced · washed-out · unwell · ill · weakened · frail
Resembling a specter
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
- wraithlikeResembling a ghost
- hollow-eyedHaving sunken eyes
- ghoulishFascinated by death grotesquely
apparitional · eerie · deathlike · corpselike · phantom · shadowy · unearthly · macabre
skeletal
Of or like bones
- bonyThin, with protruding skeleton
- wastedUsed without good result
- malnourishedLacking proper nutrition
starved · cadaverous · scrawny · undernourished · thin · haggard · shriveled · atrophied · rawboned · sunken
desolate
Bleak and abandoned
empty · lifeless · inhospitable · windswept · treeless · exposed · stripped · rugged · craggy · weathered
bleak
Dreary and without cheer
- starkSevere and unadorned
- forbiddingIntimidatingly stern or hostile
- severeExtremely harsh or strict
harsh · austere · stern · somber · gloomy · desolate · dreary · cheerless · hard · unsmiling
pallid
Unhealthily lacking color
pale · anemic · unhealthy · jaundiced · washed-out · unwell · ill · weakened · frail · feeble
ghostly
Resembling a specter
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
- wraithlikeResembling a ghost
- hollow-eyedHaving sunken eyes
ghoulish · apparitional · eerie · deathlike · corpselike · phantom · shadowy · unearthly · macabre · sinister