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:
Disrupted sleep raises the stress hormone, cortisol, which in turn promotes insulin resistance and pushes the body toward a diabetic state.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 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
Alexi Martinez, a 56-year-old public health worker, spends almost all her salary on truck tickets to visit her elderly diabetic mother in Havana.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
The hospital’s most severely diabetic patients were hospitalized for diabetes at less than half the rate of the area’s general population.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
I pulled up the tab on a can of diabetic wet food and yanked the metal top off with the familiar whoosh, causing Fig to “mrow” repeatedly.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
The key to preventing blindness in diabetics is controlling blood sugar levels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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
Erythritol, a sugar substitute and sugar alcohol, is often used in many keto and sugar-free products, as well as some products specifically marketed or labeled as being "friendly for diabetics."
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2024
My father has nothing against diabetics, or cows either.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
