Standard Lemma guide

malnutrition

noun · 2 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /ˌmæl.nuˈtɹɪʃ.ən/
  • California: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪʃən
  • CMU ARPABET: M AE2 L N UW0 T R IH1 SH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A lack of adequate nourishment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a state of poor nutrition; can result from insufficient or excessive or unbalanced diet or from inability to absorb foods

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: deficiency disease

Narrower terms: avitaminosis, hypovitaminosis, kwashiorkor, marasmus

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel-? Proto-Italic *malos Latin malus Latin maleder. Old French mal- English mal- English nutrition English malnutrition From mal- + nutrition.

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: سُوء تَغْذِيَة (sūʔ taḡḏiya) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Armenian: թերասնում (tʻerasnum) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Bulgarian: недохранване (nedohranvane) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Burmese: အာဟာရချို့တဲ့ခြင်း (ahara.hkyui.tai.hkrang:) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Catalan: desnutrició — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 營養不良 /营养不良 (yíngyǎng bùliáng) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Czech: podvýživa — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Danish: fejlernæring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Danish: underernæring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Dutch: ondervoeding — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Finnish: aliravitsemus — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Finnish: virheravitsemus — lack of adequate nourishment
  • French: malnutrition — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Georgian: კვების უკმარისობა (ḳvebis uḳmarisoba) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • German: Unterernährung — lack of adequate nourishment
  • German: Mangelernährung — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Greek: υποσιτισμός (ypositismós) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Hindi: कुपोषण (kupoṣaṇ) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Hungarian: alultápláltság — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Indonesian: defisiensi nutrisi — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Indonesian: malanutritisi — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Italian: denutrizione — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Japanese: 栄養失調 (eiyō shitchō) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Korean: 영양실조 (yeong'yangsiljo) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Malagasy: tsifanjariantsakafo — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Malay: malnutrisi — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Malay: malpemakanan — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: underernæring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Norwegian Bokmål: feilernæring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: underernæring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Polish: niedożywienie — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Portuguese: desnutrição — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Russian: недоеда́ние (nedojedánije) — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Spanish: malnutrición — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Swedish: undernäring — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Turkish: yetersiz beslenme — lack of adequate nourishment
  • Ukrainian: недоїда́ння (nedojidánnja) — lack of adequate nourishment