Standard Lemma guide

rachitic

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

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɹəˈkɪtɪk/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ɹæ-/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ɹəˈkɪtɪk/
  • General-American: [-ɾɪk]
  • rhymes with -ɪtɪk

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets (“a disorder of infancy and early childhood due to a deficiency of vitamin D, causing soft or weak bones”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rickety

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

In a precarious or weak condition; likely to break down or collapse; feeble, rickety.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

affected with, suffering from, or characteristic of rickets

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • rickety limbs and joints
  • a rachitic patient

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rickety

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From rachitis (“rickets”) + -ic (suffix forming adjectives from nouns with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’), possibly modelled after French rachitique or Late Latin rachiticus. Rachitis is an unadapted borrowing from New Latin rachitis, used by the British physician Francis Glisson (1597–1677) to refer to rickets, from Koine Greek ῥαχῖτις (rhakhîtis) (in ῥαχῖτις νόσος (rhakhîtis nósos, “spinal inflammation”, literally “spinal disease”)), the feminine form of ῥαχίτης (rhakhítēs, “in or of the spine, spinal”), from Ancient Greek ῥάχῐς (rhákhĭs, “lower part of the back; (anatomy) backbone, spine”) (probably ultimately Pre-Greek) + -ῖτις (-îtis) (feminine form of -ῑ́της (-ī́tēs, suffix forming nouns with the sense ‘one connected to’)). By surface analysis, rach- + -itic.

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: рахитичен (rahitičen) — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Catalan: raquític — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Czech: rachitický — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Finnish: riisitautinen — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • French: rachitique — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • German: rachitisch — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Hindi: क्षीण (kṣīṇ) — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Hungarian: angolkóros — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Italian: rachitico — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Macedonian: рахитичен (rahitičen) — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Portuguese: raquítico — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Spanish: raquítico — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets
  • Swedish: rakitisk — of or pertaining to, or affected by, rickets