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dry mouth

dry mouth

7 3.2
A dry feeling in the mouth when you do not make enough saliva
  • noun
  • /draɪ maʊθ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : boca seca
  • The medication made his dry mouth worse, so he started drinking more water.
  • include dry mouth

Oh no, dry mouth is the worst.

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Examples

  • I, too, have had a dry mouth.

  • Side effects include dry mouth, abdominal pain, depression, and anxiety.

    Academic text (2012)
  • Curtis's wine tasted sharp in his dry mouth.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Therefore, dry mouth is probably not a condition of aging, but most likely one of systemic or extrinsic origin.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Dry mouth symptoms can be treated with hydration and sialagogues or with artificial saliva substitutes.

    Academic text (1999)
  • After the long hike, she felt a terrible dry mouth from dehydration.

  • During the presentation, he struggled with a dry mouth and had to pause to drink.

Synonyms

xerostomia
vsdry mouth
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A very dry mouth because the body makes little or no saliva

refers to mouth dryness caused by reduced saliva secretion but not absence

Antonyms

salivation
  • Specialized
1 4.1

The mouth makes and lets out saliva

How Much Saliva

drool
38 1.7
hypersalivation
  • Specialized
7.9
salivation
  • Specialized
1 4.1
dry mouth
  • Specialized
7 3.2

Surface Forms

dry mouth singular
dry mouths plural

Morphology

dry + mouth

The meaning is a direct, literal combination of 'dry' (not wet) and 'mouth' (oral cavity), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to the mouth being unusually dry. This compositional symptom description is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English adjective+noun patterns, making it immediately understandable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Dry mouth comes from the simple image of a mouth that is dry, with little saliva so it feels sticky or parched. So the phrase describes the condition 'not making enough saliva'.