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malnourishment

malnourishment

2 4.8
Not having enough food and nutrients to be healthy and grow
  • noun
  • /mælˈnʌrɪʃmənt/
translation icon : desnutrición
  • In many developing countries, malnourishment is a significant barrier to children's growth and education.
  • suffer from malnourishment

And you couple that with malnourishment and other things that are bound to have a huge impact.

Examples

  • Centuries of sickness and malnourishment have left most of them disease-ridden and stunted.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Mother blames it all on malnourishment and vitamin deficiency.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • No signs of malnourishment or serious exposure.

  • In many countries in southern Africa, rates of malnourishment affect more than 50 percent of the population.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Our children are suffering intellectual malnourishment.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The overriding issue was to protect us from malnourishment and serious danger.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Afghanistan has a 40-50% unemployment level with a rate of malnourishment of 35%.

    Blog text (2)
  • But even in the vastly richer U.S., 20 million people suffer from malnourishment.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The FAO further estimates that there has been a 72% rise in childhood malnourishment, affecting 32 percent of children under five.

    Academic text (2001)
  • Seventeen million children under five die each year, and malnourishment contributes to at least one-third of these children's deaths.

    Academic text (2001)

Synonyms

starvation
vsmalnourishment
83 4.7

A very strong hunger that happens when someone has no food for a long time

is about lack of food causing poor health, not necessarily extreme hunger
malnutrition
vsmalnourishment
  • Specialized
29 5.1

A health problem when the body does not get or use the right food

is limited to insufficient food or nutrients rather than excess or imbalance
undernutrition
vsmalnourishment
  • Specialized
1 6.0

A lack of enough food and the nutrients a body needs for good health

is about insufficient food or nutrients preventing normal growth and function
undernourishment
vsmalnourishment
  • Specialized
1 5.7

A lack of enough food to grow or be healthy

emphasizes lack of nutrients needed to grow and stay healthy
semistarvation
vsmalnourishment
7.5

A state of having less food than the body needs but not completely without food

is a broader condition covering general shortages, not only near-miss cases

Antonyms

Having enough healthy food to grow and stay healthy

How Nourished

nutrition
125 2.3
malnourishment
2 4.8
undernourishment
  • Specialized
1 5.7
starvation
83 4.7

Surface Forms

Morphology

malnourishment = malnourish (transparent) = mal + nourish + ment

Formed by adding the productive suffix '-ment' to the clear verb 'malnourish', yielding the noun for the condition or result.

Etymology

The word malnourishment comes from the parts mal- meaning 'bad' and nourish meaning 'to feed'. So malnourishment literally means 'bad feeding', which explains why it describes not having enough good food or nutrients to be healthy.