What does malnourished mean?
Word: Malnourished
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Malnourished means weak and in poor health because of not eating enough food, or not enough of the right kinds of food.
Synonyms: underfed, undernourished
How do you spell malnourished?
Syllables: mal - nour - ished
Tricky part: The middle is spelt our, as in courage, even though it sounds like "ur". Students often write malnurished or malnorished.
Watch out for: malnurished, malnorished
Memory tip: If you can spell nourish, as in nourishing food, you already have the hard part: the same our sits inside this word.
Malnourished in a sentence
Example 1: The rescue centre nursed the malnourished elephant calf back to health.
Example 2: A malnourished kitten needs small meals many times a day.
Example 3: Our cow looked malnourished after the dry summer, so the vet suggested better fodder.
Fun Fact
India's midday meal scheme, which serves a cooked lunch in government schools, was set up partly to stop children from growing up malnourished.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Fusion
Choose the option that will complete the given word:
____nourish____ 1. dis 2. pre 3. mal 4. mis 5. ful 6. ed 7. less 8. ness
a) 4 and 7
b) 1 and 5
c) 2 and 8
d) 3 and 6
Show answer
d) 3 and 6. Mal and ed build the word for someone weak from too little good food; no other pair makes a real word.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with the correct options:
1. malnourished 2. fragile 3. genuine a. sturdy b. fake c. well-fed
a) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
b) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
c) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
d) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
Show answer
a) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b. These are opposites: malnourished and well-fed, fragile and sturdy, genuine and fake.
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
dinelraomhsu
a) worried and unable to keep still
b) very tired after a lot of hard work
c) thirsty after a long time without water
d) weak and unwell from too little good food
Show answer
d) weak and unwell from too little good food. The twelve letters make malnourished, which describes someone who has not had enough good food.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
Doctors at the health camp gave malnourished children extra milk, eggs and frute every day for a month.
a) 0
b) 2
c) 3
d) 1
Show answer
d) 1. Only fruit is wrong: it has a u and an i, and no e at the end.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which meal would best help a malnourished child grow stronger?
a) a cup of tea with extra sugar
b) a plate of fried snacks and sweets
c) a packet of chips and a cola
d) dal, rice, vegetables and an egg
Show answer
d) dal, rice, vegetables and an egg
2. A child who is malnourished will often ___.
a) tire easily and fall ill often
b) have extra energy for sport
c) need less sleep than others
d) grow faster than other children
Show answer
a) tire easily and fall ill often
