Standard Lemma guide

cadaverous

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

adj

Meaning 1

Corpselike; hinting of death; imitating a cadaver.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1917 rev. 1925 Ezra Pound, "Canto I" Dark blood flowed in the fosse, Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead ...

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective

Meaning 2

of or relating to a cadaver or corpse

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • we had long anticipated his cadaverous end

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cadaveric

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • emaciated bony hands
  • a nightmare population of gaunt men and skeletal boys
  • eyes were haggard and cavernous
  • small pinched faces
  • kept life in his wasted frame only by grim concentration

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bony, emaciated, gaunt, haggard, pinched, skeletal, wasted

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin cadāverōsus; compare Middle English cadaverous (“gangrenous, mortified”).

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: мъртвешки (mǎrtveški) — cadaverous
  • Catalan: cadavèric — cadaverous
  • French: cadavérique — cadaverous
  • Galician: cadavérico — cadaverous
  • Latin: cadāverōsus — cadaverous
  • Lithuanian: lavoniškas — cadaverous
  • Polish: trupi — cadaverous
  • Portuguese: cadavérico — cadaverous
  • Romanian: cadaveric — cadaverous
  • Russian: тру́пный (trúpnyj) — cadaverous
  • Spanish: cadavérico — cadaverous