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Synonyms

eating disorder

American  

noun

  • eating disorders
    plural
  1. any of various disorders, as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, characterized by severe disturbances in eating habits.


eating disorder Scientific  
/ ē′tĭng /
  1. Any of several patterns of severely disturbed eating behavior, especially anorexia nervosa and bulimia, seen mainly in female teenagers and young women.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of eating disorder

First recorded in 1990–95

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:

The 19-year-old Cardiff University student said she believes if she'd had access to AI during her eating disorder, it would have had a "terrible impact".

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

I had an eating disorder, which is still kind of … You know, last night, I asked for apple juice during the show — I was in trouble because I wasn’t eating.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

Few people then, not even Carpenter’s closest confidantes, knew how to talk about what was actually an eating disorder, much less manage it.

From Salon ● Aug. 13, 2026

YouTube is still recommending eating disorder videos to teenage users a year after new rules were introduced to curb harmful online content, according to new research.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Zander is sometimes depressed, too, and Annabelle herself is anxious, and Sierra is edging toward an eating disorder, and those are only the things she knows for sure.

From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti

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