Standard Lemma guide

undernourished

adj · 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: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AH2 N D ER0 N ER1 IH0 SH T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Provided with insufficient nourishment to sustain proper health and growth.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

not getting adequate food

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • gaunt underfed children
  • badly undernourished

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ill-fed, underfed

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h1én Proto-Indo-European *h1entér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dhí Proto-Indo-European *-ér Proto-Indo-European *(H)n̥dhér Proto-Germanic *under Proto-West Germanic *undar Old English under- Middle English under- English under- English nourished English undernourished From under- + nourished.

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: недохранен (nedohranen) — insufficiently nourished
  • Finnish: aliravittu — insufficiently nourished
  • Galician: desnutrido — insufficiently nourished
  • German: unterernährt — insufficiently nourished
  • Hindi: कुपोषित (kupoṣit) — insufficiently nourished
  • Hungarian: alultáplált — insufficiently nourished
  • Irish: gannchothaithe — insufficiently nourished
  • Irish: tearc-chothaithe — insufficiently nourished
  • Italian: denutrito — insufficiently nourished
  • Spanish: desnutrido — insufficiently nourished
  • Swedish: undernärd — insufficiently nourished