anorexia

IPA/ˌænəˈreksiə/
KK[ˌænɚˈɛksiə]IPA/ˌænəˈreksiə/

anorexia — noun

1. a serious mental health condition that causes someone to greatly limit how much

1.nounB2
Definition

a serious mental health condition that causes someone to greatly limit how much food they eat because they are terrified of gaining weight, even when their body weight is already far below what is healthy.

Example

Tyler stopped joining family meals and lost ten kilograms in two months.

collocation: lost over [number] kilograms — rapid weight loss as a symptom

The clinic offered a special program to help young people recover from anorexia.

Common collocations
  • suffer from anorexia
  • diagnosed with anorexia
  • recover from anorexia
  • treatment for anorexia
  • severe anorexia
  • anorexia nervosa
Synonyms

Usage Note

Anorexia is a medical diagnosis — it should not be used casually to describe someone who is just eating lightly or dieting. The full clinical name is anorexia nervosa.

Common Mistakes

She has anorexia because she skipped breakfast.
She was diagnosed with anorexia after months of extreme food restriction and rapid weight loss.
Anorexia is a serious psychiatric disorder, not a temporary eating pattern.
I think I have anorexia because I lost my appetite.
A loss of appetite can have many causes; anorexia nervosa is a specific mental illness involving fear of weight gain.
General loss of appetite is a symptom of many conditions, not the same as anorexia nervosa.
He got anorexia from trying to lose weight for a wedding.
Dieting can be a trigger, but anorexia develops from a complex mix of genetic, psychological, and social factors.
Reducing anorexia to a single cause oversimplifies a serious mental illness.

Word family

  • anorexic
    adjectiveB2
  • anorexic
    nounC1
  • anorectic
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Anorexia (or anorexia nervosa) is one specific type of eating disorder defined by extreme food restriction driven by a fear of weight gain. Bulimia is a different eating disorder involving cycles of binge eating followed by purging — the two conditions share an intense preoccupation with body shape but differ in behavior. Eating disorder is the broad umbrella term covering anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, and others. Malnutrition refers to any condition caused by insufficient or unbalanced nutrition and can result from many causes (illness, poverty, digestive problems), not just anorexia. For example: 'The hospital treats both anorexia and bulimia under its eating disorder unit.' 'The patient's malnutrition was a direct consequence of her untreated anorexia.'

anorexia nervosabulimia ↗eating disordermalnutrition ↗

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Anorexia comes from the Greek prefix an- ('without') and orexis ('appetite' or 'desire'), literally meaning 'loss of appetite.' The full medical term anorexia nervosa — with nervosa added to emphasize its psychological nature — was first used in 1873 by the English physician Sir William Gull to describe the eating disorder we know today. Before that, the word anorexia alone had been used since the 1500s simply to mean a lack of appetite caused by physical illness.

First known use

1591

1591, in the meaning defined at sense 1