gaunt
adjective
extremely thin and bony; haggard and drawn, as from great hunger, weariness, or torture; emaciated.
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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
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"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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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 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
In the dock, Filipov, 36, cut a gaunt but muscular figure, twitching slightly like a boxer before a fight as he attempted to defuse awkward questions about his tattoos.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025
Other prisoners have appeared gaunt and almost unrecognisable.
From Barron's ● Oct. 21, 2025
Back in 2011, the writer-director was already tinkering with a version of the monster that resembled a blend of Iggy Pop and Boris Karloff with jagged sutures, gaunt wrinkles and a crushed nose.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
Many were dead and gaunt, bitten to the core by the eastern winds.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Andy Gaunt, director of community interest company Mercian Archaeology Services, explained Sherwood Forest was a royal hunting area made up of woodland and heath, with well-used routes and small settlements within it.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 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
“Getting ghosted or zombied typically results in sadness, anger and oftentimes actual depression,” said Ms. Gaunt, author of the recent book “Prince Charming is Dead … or in Rehab.”
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2023
Mr. Gaunt spoke out of the corner of his mouth to Morfin.
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
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
After a month of illness in Lahore, Jinnah recently returned to Karachi, gaunter than ever.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was Mr Pepson, gaunter than ever, with signs of suffering written on his face, which now showed the utmost astonishment and delight.
From With Wolseley to Kumasi A Tale of the First Ashanti War by F. S. (Frederick Sadleir) Brereton
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
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
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.
