adjective
-
of, relating to, or having diabetes
-
for the use of diabetics
diabetic chocolate
noun
Usage
Rather than talking about a diabetic or diabetics , it is better to talk about a person with diabetes , people with diabetes
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of diabetic
First recorded in 1790–1800; diabet(es) + -ic
Explanation
If you're a diabetic, you are a person who suffers from the disease of diabetes. Diabetics tend to have wildly varying blood sugar levels, which can sometimes be dangerous. A diabetic's pancreas typically doesn't produce enough insulin, the hormone in your body that metabolizes sugars and carbohydrates. The word diabetic is also an adjective that describes someone who has the illness or something associated with it. Your diabetic friend might need to monitor her blood sugar several times a day and follow a special diabetic diet. The word comes from the Greek, in which it means "excessive discharge of urine," one of the illness's symptoms.
Vocabulary lists containing diabetic
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:
If someone has diabetes, they should be getting a routine diabetic eye exam regardless.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
The approach likewise did not raise the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, which occurs when the body does not have enough insulin and can become life-threatening.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
Her nan grabbed her "blind and diabetic" Yorkshire terrier Molly and pet budgie before leaving the property, said Jade.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Former Kaiser CEO George Halvorson has written that if a diabetic in a Medicare Advantage plan requires a foot amputation, that will likely cost the plan $100,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Or take medicine, even if you’re a diabetic and would die without your insulin pump.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
The combination of a good proportion of diabetics getting back to normalized glucose levels and achieving sustained weight loss with enicepatide give the drug a competitive profile, Schneider says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Continuous glucose monitoring of people with and without type 2 diabetics over three days showed that, in participants with diabetes, post-meal sugar fluctuations were significantly smaller after eating a mango.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2025
She thinks that everyone should wear a glucose monitor, a tool that is very useful for diabetics but doesn’t really do anything for the rest of us.
From Slate ● May 10, 2025
All that extra sugar can make cranberry dishes hard to consume for Type 1 diabetics, because the sugars cause a rapid rise in blood glucose.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
Because it turned out that he was good at delivering meals, at making sure the diabetics never got the kosher boxes or the vegetarians the meat ones.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
Definitions 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.
