malnourished
Lacking adequate nutrition
Malnourished describes someone whose body lacks proper nutrition—either from insufficient food or from a diet missing essential nutrients.
The term applies to both starvation and to eating enough calories while still being deficient: The children were malnourished despite having food, because their diet lacked protein.
Malnourished can extend figuratively to anything starved of what it needs: a malnourished imagination.
Abnormally wasted from hunger
- gauntLean from deprivation
- wastedUsed without good result
- skeletalOf or like bones
- underweightBelow normal mass
stunted · thin · bony · frail · weak · feeble · atrophied · pallid
Severe food shortage
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
- food insecurityUncertain access to adequate meals
- humanitarian aidCrisis relief for sufferers
- relief programsOrganized assistance for hardship
drought · crop failure · displacement · refugee · food desert · aid workers · rations · subsistence
Nutritional bone-weakening illness
- scurvyVitamin C deficiency disease
- beriberiVitamin B1 deficiency disease
- pellagraNiacin-lack illness
- cachexiaSevere illness-induced wasting
osteoporosis · anemia · vitamin deficiency · protein deficiency · iron deficiency · night blindness · goiter · edema
Extremely lacking in money
- destituteUtterly without means
- underprivilegedLacking usual social advantages
- needyWanting in essentials
- deprivationState of lacking necessities
hardship · inequality · subsistence · hand-to-mouth · dispossessed · vulnerable populations · marginalized · food assistance
Identification of illness
- assessmentFormal evaluation of worth
- anthropometryScience of body measurements
- BMIWeight-to-height ratio
- refeedingResuming nutrition after deprivation
rehabilitation · supplementation · fortification · clinical signs · wasting syndrome · failure to thrive · nutrient absorption · malabsorption
emaciated
Abnormally wasted from hunger
underweight · stunted · thin · bony · frail · weak · feeble · atrophied · pallid · sallow
famine
Severe food shortage
- starvationExtreme nutritional deprivation
- food insecurityUncertain access to adequate meals
- humanitarian aidCrisis relief for sufferers
relief programs · drought · crop failure · displacement · refugee · food desert · aid workers · rations · subsistence · chronic hunger
rickets
Nutritional bone-weakening illness
cachexia · osteoporosis · anemia · vitamin deficiency · protein deficiency · iron deficiency · night blindness · goiter · edema · wasting
impoverished
Extremely lacking in money
- destituteUtterly without means
- underprivilegedLacking usual social advantages
- needyWanting in essentials
deprivation · hardship · inequality · subsistence · hand-to-mouth · dispossessed · vulnerable populations · marginalized · food assistance · welfare
diagnosis
Identification of illness
- assessmentFormal evaluation of worth
- anthropometryScience of body measurements
- BMIWeight-to-height ratio
refeeding · rehabilitation · supplementation · fortification · clinical signs · wasting syndrome · failure to thrive · nutrient absorption · malabsorption · intervention
- nutritionnutrients, protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins
- hungerhunger, hungry, starving, starvation, famished
- skinnythin, slim, slender, lean, skinny
- survival statesalive, dead, dying, injured, safe
- malnutritionmalnutrition, undernourishment, starvation, undernutrition, wasting
- Vulnerable Groupshomeless youth, orphans, refugees, disabled people, elderly poor