eating disorder

American  

noun

eating disorders plural

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

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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.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• eating disorders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of eating disorder

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

eating disorder

Anorexia kills a higher percentage of patients than any other eating disorder, data shows.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 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

While advice on diet and exercise could be helpful to some users, it can be harmful to someone with an eating disorder.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

In dealing with the serious topic of bulimia, Early was careful never to make the eating disorder the joke.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 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