starvation
Americannoun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of starvation
Explanation
Starvation is what happens if you don’t eat for days or weeks and your body starts to shut down. Extreme poverty, drought and other dire circumstances can contribute to starvation. Starvation can be the result of war or famine, leading to the deaths of large numbers of people. Any organism that depends on food for energy is at risk of starvation when there isn't enough to eat. Starvation is thought by some to have entered the language in 1775 during the American Revolution, when a member of the British Parliament suggested starvation as a way to make the American rebels submit.
Vocabulary lists containing starvation
Africa - Middle School
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Africa - High School
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Part 2 Vocabulary (Unit 1)
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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.
The 40-minute video by artist Helen Cammock at the central London gallery had referred to "the wilful starvation of the Indian population by Winston Churchill" in the 1943 famine.
From BBC • Jun. 22, 2026
The UN estimated that the conflict could push an additional 45 million people into “acute food insecurity,” which includes the risk of death as a result of starvation, bringing the total to 363 million.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026
"Energy starvation as a coercive tool is incompatible with international human rights norms."
From Barron's • May 7, 2026
"In many places, groundwater extraction, sediment starvation, and rapid urbanization are causing land to sink much faster than previously recognized," Ohenhen said.
From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026
Disease runs rampant because few can afford health care, but starvation remains the number-one killer.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
