emaciation

/ɪˌmeɪsiˈeɪʃən/

Emaciation is extreme, dangerous thinness. People suffering from emaciation have usually experienced malnutrition because of illness or poverty.

If someone goes on a hunger strike for long enough, it will result in emaciation, leaving them looking gaunt and feeling very weak. True emaciation means that there is very little fat left in the person's body, making their bones prominent. This noun comes from the Latin emaciare, "make lean, waste away," and its root, macer, "thin."

Definitions of emaciation

1. noun

   extreme leanness (usually caused by starvation or disease)
   synonyms: boniness, bonyness, gauntness, maceration

   type of:

   leanness, spareness, thinness

   the property of having little body fat