Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Weight loss, wasting of muscle, loss of appetite, and general debility that can occur during a chronic disease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as cachexy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A condition of ill health and impairment of nutrition due to impoverishment of the blood, esp. when caused by a specific morbid process (as cancer or tubercle).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine A systemic wasting of muscle tissue, with or without loss of fat mass, that accompanies a chronic disease

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any general reduction in vitality and strength of body and mind resulting from a debilitating chronic disease

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin, from Greek kakhexiā : kako-, caco- + hexis, condition (from ekhein, to have; see segh- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κακός (kakos, "bad, wretched") + ἔχειν (ekhein, "to have"), present active infinitive of ἔχω

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cachexia.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.