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Glite Dictionary
🧒 Eating non-food 📏 Printing unit
pica

pica

1 9.9
A health problem in which a person, often a child, eats non-food things like dirt or paper
  • noun
  • /ˈpaɪkə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pica
  • A common symptom of pica is the persistent desire to eat things like paper or metal, which can be harmful to health.
  • history of pica
  • connection to pica

Examples

  • "It is a phenomenon known as pica."

    Fiction book (1999)

  • While pica usually involves a craving to eat inedible things, I would not rule out an impulse to merely feel things.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Changes in cognition and behavior may be independent of hemoglobin concentrations; for example, pica is a well-known manifestation of iron deficiency from which individuals recover soon after the start of iron therapy.

    Academic text (1999)

  • In children, pica often manifests as the compulsive eating of non-food items like dirt or chalk.

  • Doctors often treat pica by addressing nutritional deficiencies that lead to cravings for non-edible substances.

Compounds

genus Pica
  • Specialized
9.1

A group of magpies with long tails and black and white feathers

pica em
  • Specialized
9.9

A measure equal to one sixth of an inch used in printing and page layout

Pica pica hudsonia
  • Specialized
9.9

A magpie with black and white feathers and a long tail that lives in western North America

Pica pica
  • Specialized
8.9

A black-and-white bird with a long tail that lives in Europe and Asia

pica-pica
  • US
9.9

A stinging plant from tropical America that makes your skin itch when touched

Surface Forms

pica singular
picas plural

Etymology

Pica for the eating disorder comes from the Latin word pica, which means 'magpie', a bird that will eat almost anything, so the name gives the image of someone who eats odd, non-food items.