as in hunger
suffering or death caused by having nothing to eat or not enough to eat; the condition of someone who is starving
The famine brought mass starvation. Millions of people face starvation every day. They died from starvation.
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Recent Examples of starvation
One of the bacteria, Tersicoccus phoenicis, is capable of playing dead to survive starvation and other stressors.
—
Devika Rao, TheWeek, 9 Jan. 2026
That legendary multiyear circumnavigation, a 45-minute sequence marked by paranoia, hallucinations, death, disease, starvation, groaning silence and crushing despair, makes for one of the most casually brutal depictions of transoceanic voyaging ever committed to film.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2026
Yet the implicit presence of ‘The Whitsun Weddings,’ the precise dating of István’s wall-punching to the Pentecost weekend—these things tell us that while the prose may be on starvation rations, the novel itself is not.
—Literary Hub, 8 Jan. 2026
This deliberately obscures the possibility that some victims were lactating female bears — and for every dead mother, there was probably at least one cub in danger of dying from starvation.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 1 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for starvation
Devika Rao, TheWeek, 9 Jan. 2026
That legendary multiyear circumnavigation, a 45-minute sequence marked by paranoia, hallucinations, death, disease, starvation, groaning silence and crushing despair, makes for one of the most casually brutal depictions of transoceanic voyaging ever committed to film.
—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2026
Yet the implicit presence of ‘The Whitsun Weddings,’ the precise dating of István’s wall-punching to the Pentecost weekend—these things tell us that while the prose may be on starvation rations, the novel itself is not.
—Literary Hub, 8 Jan. 2026
This deliberately obscures the possibility that some victims were lactating female bears — and for every dead mother, there was probably at least one cub in danger of dying from starvation.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 1 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for starvation
Recent Examples of Synonyms for starvation
Noun
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James Timpson, the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, said that there are, on average, more than 200 hunger-strike incidents in UK prisons each year.—
Kara Fox,
CNN Money,
14 Jan. 2026
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The 2025 inaugural Tailgate recovery helped give 8,000 meals to people experiencing hunger.—
Jessica Nicholson,
Billboard,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Widespread violence, including allegations of a genocide in the western Darfur region, has led to at least 150,000 people being killed, alongside famine and a collapse of health systems in what the UN has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.—
Preeti Jha,
semafor.com,
9 Jan. 2026
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And while famine has not yet emerged, food insecurity has increased, with most Cubans eating a limited diet and skipping meals.—
Joseph J. Gonzalez,
Fortune,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Turtles that are deprived of UVB radiation will lose interest in eating, suffer from malnutrition and develop fatal metabolic bone disease.—
BestReviews,
Chicago Tribune,
9 Jan. 2026
-
There’s similar progress on obesity and cancer, as well as on problems in developing countries like malaria, TB, and malnutrition.—
Eleanor Pringle,
Fortune,
9 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Starvation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/starvation. Accessed 18 Jan. 2026.
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