kwashiorkor
/ˌkwɑʃiˈɔɹkɚ/noun
kwashiorkor is a noun meaning “A form of malnutrition, found in children, caused by dietary insufficiency of protein in combination with a high-carbohydrate diet” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-W-A-S-H-I-O-R-K-O-R, and it appears about once in every 42 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of kwashiorkor is kwashiorkors.
What does kwashiorkor mean?
noun
- 1
A form of malnutrition, found in children, caused by dietary insufficiency of protein in combination with a high-carbohydrate diet.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce kwashiorkor?
- UK /kwɒʃiˈɔːkɔː/
- UK /kwæʃiˈɔːkɔː/
- US /ˌkwɑʃiˈɔɹkɚ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of kwashiorkor
- kwashiorkors plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is kwashiorkor?
Kwashiorkor appears about once in every 42 million words in written English, the 199,120th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Kwashiorkor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense form of malnutrition:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Kwashiorkor, Mehlnährschaden |
| Portuguese | kwashiorkor |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does kwashiorkor come from?
From Ga kwašiɔkɔ, kwàṣìɔkɔ́ (“the sickness the older child gets when the next baby is born”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).