‹ YuzoolWordbayOpen app

Wordbay · Body & health

Words about the body and health

From head to toe: words for parts of the body, how it moves and how it feels, including a few you will meet at the doctor’s. A word list, never medical advice.

Everyday (22)

  • acute adjective. Of an illness or pain, coming on suddenly and severely.
  • ambidextrous adjective. Able to use the right and left hands equally well.
  • chronic adjective. Of an illness or problem, lasting a long time or constantly coming back.
  • cognitive adjective. To do with thinking, knowing, remembering and understanding.
  • dexterity noun. Skill and quickness in using the hands, or in using the mind.
  • famished adjective. Extremely hungry.
  • gait noun. A person’s or an animal’s particular way of walking.
  • glabella noun. The smooth patch of skin between the eyebrows, just above the nose.
  • hereditary adjective. Passed down from parents to children, through the genes or by inheritance.
  • insomnia noun. Habitual difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep.
  • lethargic adjective. Sluggish and lacking energy or enthusiasm.
  • lunule noun. The pale half-moon at the base of a fingernail.
  • metabolism noun. The chemical processes by which a living body turns food into energy and builds tissue.
  • nauseous adjective. Causing a feeling of sickness; sickening.
  • philtrum noun. The small vertical groove that runs from the bottom of the nose to the top lip.
  • physique noun. The shape, size and build of a person’s body.
  • prognosis noun. A forecast of how something, especially an illness, is likely to turn out.
  • ravenous adjective. So hungry that you could eat almost anything.
  • recuperate verb. To recover health, strength or energy after an illness or a great effort.
  • sedentary adjective. Involving a lot of sitting down and little physical activity.
  • therapeutic adjective. Having a good effect on the body or mind; helping to heal or soothe.
  • vertigo noun. A spinning, giddy feeling that makes you lose your balance, often brought on by heights.

Well-read (25)

  • anaemic adjective. Having too few red blood cells, and so looking pale and feeling tired.
  • atrophy verb. To waste away or weaken, especially through lack of use.
  • callipygian adjective. Having beautifully shaped buttocks.
  • circadian adjective. To do with a living thing’s natural cycle of roughly twenty-four hours.
  • collywobbles noun. A queasy, fluttery feeling in the stomach, usually from nerves.
  • convalesce verb. To recover gradually after an illness or an operation.
  • emaciated adjective. Abnormally thin and weak, usually from hunger or illness.
  • hale adjective. Strong and healthy, especially of an older person.
  • homeostasis noun. A living thing’s way of keeping its inner conditions, such as temperature, steady.
  • lassitude noun. Physical or mental weariness and a lack of energy.
  • lissom adjective. Slim, supple and graceful in movement.
  • malingerer noun. Someone who pretends to be ill, or more ill than they are, to get out of work.
  • palliative adjective. Easing pain or distress without dealing with its underlying cause.
  • pallid adjective. Unhealthily pale; also, lacking colour or liveliness.
  • panacea noun. A remedy or solution claimed to cure every ill or fix every problem.
  • pandiculation noun. Stretching and yawning at the same time, often on waking.
  • prescribe verb. To recommend a medicine or treatment, or to lay down officially what must be done.
  • prophylactic adjective. Meant to prevent a disease or some other problem before it starts.
  • purlicue noun. The space between the thumb and the forefinger when the hand is spread.
  • salubrious adjective. Good for the health; or, of a place, pleasant, clean and respectable.
  • sinewy adjective. Lean and muscular, with tendons that show; tough and strong.
  • somnolent adjective. Sleepy or drowsy; also, so quiet that it makes you feel sleepy.
  • soporific adjective. Causing sleep or drowsiness; also, very boring.
  • tactile adjective. To do with the sense of touch; also, pleasant to touch, or fond of touching.
  • vestigial adjective. Remaining as a small, useless trace of something that once had a purpose.

Advanced (20)

  • acnestis noun. The spot on your back between the shoulder blades that you can't reach to scratch.
  • anhedonia noun. The loss of the ability to feel pleasure in things that once brought it.
  • borborygmus noun. A rumbling or gurgling noise made by gas moving through the intestines.
  • crapulent adjective. Ill from having eaten or drunk too much.
  • eidetic adjective. Of memory, able to recall images in vivid, almost photographic detail.
  • eructation noun. A belch, or the act of belching.
  • eupeptic adjective. Having a good digestion, and so cheerful and optimistic.
  • formication noun. A creeping feeling on the skin, as if insects were crawling over it.
  • gracile adjective. Slender and graceful.
  • gustatory adjective. To do with tasting or the sense of taste.
  • hebetude noun. Dullness of mind and body; a heavy, stupefied sluggishness.
  • horripilation noun. The bristling of the hairs on the skin from cold, fear or excitement.
  • hypnagogic adjective. Belonging to the drowsy state between being awake and falling asleep.
  • nictitate verb. To blink or wink.
  • oscitation noun. The act of yawning; also, drowsy inattention.
  • proprioception noun. The body’s sense of where its own parts are and how they are moving, without looking.
  • senescence noun. The process of growing old and gradually deteriorating.
  • singultus noun. The medical name for a hiccup, or a bout of hiccups.
  • sternutation noun. The act of sneezing, or a single sneeze.
  • valetudinarian noun. A person who worries constantly about their own health, often imagining illness.