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Glite Dictionary
🪱 A blood-sucking worm 🤒 A worm disease
hookworm

hookworm

1 6.5
An infection of the intestines caused when young worms enter the body through the skin and feed on blood
  • noun
  • /ˈhʊkˌwɜrm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : infección por anquilostomas
  • Are you trying to tell me that girl is a product of the hookworm and pellagra belt?

Like so many children in her region, Mei Ling is infected with hookworms.

Examples

  • Some worms gain access directly through the skin, including hookworm larvae.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Malaria, hookworm, and scabies are precipitating infections of malnutrition in children.

    Academic text (1991)

  • There never has been a case of hookworm in Virginia.

    Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

  • Have they finally gotten that hookworm situation under control down there?

    Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

  • They then go on to explain a specific negative effect, involving the hookworm, that parasites have.

    Blog text (34)

  • They searched and found hookworms in the soil, especially in latrines.

    Blog text (34)

  • Safura seems to correspond to two diseases in Western medicine: marasmus and hookworm (Manyandikiya; Pombe).

    Academic text (1991)

  • The adult provider was noted to have encountered an "unusually high number of cases of infectious gastrointestinal diseases," and saw such illnesses as malaria, hookworm, and pneumonia as well.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Inadequate water supply, sanitation, drainage, and rubbish collection in a crowded environment predispose people to recurrent diarrhoea and diseases such as typhoid, hookworm, and cholera.

    Academic text (2016)

  • In tropical regions, children playing barefoot are at greater risk of contracting a hookworm infection.

Synonyms

hookworm disease
vshookworm
  • Specialized
4.4

A disease caused by small worms that live in the intestines and enter through the skin

focuses on the actual parasite infestation rather than naming the illness

Antonyms

health
∞ 1.0

The condition of a person's body and mind, especially being free from illness or injury

wellness
52 3.2

Good physical and mental health that people try to keep

Compounds

hookworm disease
  • Specialized
4.4

A disease caused by small worms that live in the intestines and enter through the skin

Surface Forms

hookworm singular
hookworms plural

Morphology

hookworm = hook + worm (semi-transparent) = hook + worm

Morphologically a clear compound, but the sense shifts metonymically from the organism to the infestation/disease, which is not strictly derivable from the parts alone.

Etymology

Hookworm as the name of the infection comes from the same parts hook ('curved tool') and worm ('small creeping creature'). So the word describes the small worms with hook-like mouths that attach to the intestines, and it can mean the parasite itself or the illness it causes.