noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A form of malnutrition, found in children, caused by dietary insufficiency of protein in combination with a high-carbohydrate diet. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   severe malnutrition in children resulting from a diet excessively high in carbohydrates and low in protein wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

anemiaberiberidermatitisgoitermalnutritionnight blindness

Etymology

From Ga kwašiɔkɔ, kwàṣìɔkɔ́ (“the sickness the older child gets when the next baby is born”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.