gaunt
adjective
extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.
Jump To:
gaunt
1 American
[gawnt]
/ gɔnt /
adjective
-
gaunter,
comparative
-
gauntest
superlative
Gaunt
2
American
[gawnt, gahnt]
/ gɔnt, gɑnt /
noun
gaunt
British
/ ɡɔːnt /
adjective
-
bony and emaciated in appearance
-
(of places) bleak or desolate
Synonym Usage
See thin.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of gaunt
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, probably from Old French gaunet, jaunet “yellowish,” derivative of gaune, jaune “yellow,” from Latin galbinus “greenish-yellow”
Explanation
The word gaunt means extremely bony or thin, often from weariness, suffering, or hunger. A place that is described as gaunt may look deserted, harsh, or just very plain. A stark, desolate landscape may be described as gaunt: harsh, barren, seemingly lifeless. If a group of hikers get lost for weeks in such a wilderness, surviving with little food or warmth, they would likely start to look gaunt: haggard, perhaps a bit skeletal. When they spy a gaunt old fortress on a hilltop, they'd probably ignore the fact that it looks abandoned, gloomy, even forbidding, and knock on the door to seek help. Don't worry — the gaunt-faced woman inside the mansion turns out to be a lovely person, who offers warmth and refuge.
Vocabulary lists containing gaunt
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Refugee
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It was the first time that the famous prisoner had been seen publicly in years, and he appeared aged and gaunt.
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
As Alpha waits for the results of blood tests, she is startled by the sudden appearance of a gaunt, jittery stranger in their apartment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
The earl of Arundel’s tomb expresses the grim realities beneath the era’s facade of chivalry: Above, he is depicted resplendent in full armor; below, as a gaunt cadaver.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
Based in leafy south-west London, the Victorian-era facility - with its gaunt brick walls and a dark intimidating entrance - is one of the largest in the UK.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2025
He stood there beside the gaunt rabbit of a mule, the two of them shabby and motionless and unimpatient.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
"In all the areas I've worked in… it's by far the worst here," one of the officers involved, PC Victoria Gaunt, told us.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
There’s a healthy place for AI in business communications, Gaunt says: crisis communicators can use it as a “devil’s advocate” when evaluating approaches or stress-testing strategies.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
Gaunt men and “children, big-eyed and thin,” walked up and clutched the rabbi’s raincoat.
From Slate ● Jan. 28, 2024
The danger of responding is the likelihood that zombies are playing “it’s over, come on over” relationship games, said Janice Gaunt, a Dallas, Texas-based licensed professional counselor.
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2023
“Hanging out of the window to look at a Muggle?” said Gaunt quietly.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
For the last two-thirds of the film we mainly follow the wanderings of Garfield’s Father Rodrigues, who grows ever gaunter, more ragged, and more spiritually bereft.
From Slate ● Dec. 22, 2016
Now it was Lind say, gaunter and grayer after. four years of grappling with crises, who seemed like a man on the defensive.
From Time Magazine Archive
Looking greyer, gaunter, grimmer than ever, Utah's 70-year-old Senator Reed Smoot arose behind his paper-cluttered aisle desk last week to perform an important function.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bob Dole's cranky bombast suggests a gaunter Foghorn Leghorn.
From Time Magazine Archive
But Timothy, wilder and gaunter than ever, sets his teeth.
From The Best Short Stories of 1919 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story by Edward J. (Edward Joseph Harrington) O'Brien
It will be the rawest, gauntest, ungainliest brute that ever scared the motor-bicycles on the Northampton Road.
From The Research Magnificent by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
One part of the lane he could see plainly, and into it stalked Joel Creech, leading the leanest and gauntest ponies Slone had ever seen.
From Wildfire by Zane Grey
At last even the gauntest of them filled up and left the room and we were free to sit at "the second table" and eat, while the men rested outside.
From A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
