Meaning & use
gaunt
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Very thin, with a bony, hollow-looking face or body, often because of illness, hunger or tiredness.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a gaunt face, he looked gaunt.
Patterns
- look gaunt
- a gaunt face
After weeks in the hospital, he looked pale and gaunt.
The traveler arrived gaunt and exhausted.
Her gaunt face showed how little she had eaten.
adjectivebefore a nounliterary
Bare, empty and grim in appearance, used for places and buildings.
Grammar: Literary use for a place that looks bleak.
Patterns
- a gaunt building
A gaunt tower stood against the gray sky.
The gaunt hills offered no shelter.
They walked past a gaunt, empty factory.
Word forms
| comparative | gaunter |
|---|---|
| superlative | gauntest |
Common combinations
- gaunt face
- He had a gaunt face and sunken eyes.
- look gaunt
- The patient started to look gaunt.
- gaunt figure
- A gaunt figure stood in the doorway.
- gaunt and pale
- She was gaunt and pale after the long illness.
- gaunt cheeks
- His gaunt cheeks worried his mother.
Synonyms and how they differ
- skinny
- Skinny is informal and can simply mean very slim, whereas gaunt suggests suffering.
- haggard
- Haggard stresses a worn, tired look, especially in the face, rather than the thinness itself.
- emaciated
- Emaciated is stronger and medical, describing extreme thinness from starvation or illness.
- lean
- Lean is neutral or positive, describing a fit and thin body without suffering.
Opposites
Word family
- gauntness noun
- the state of being very thin and bony
- gauntly adverb
- in a thin, bony or bleak way (rare)
Commonly confused: gaunt or gauntlet?
gaunt vs gauntlet
A gauntlet is a protective glove, and in the phrase run the gauntlet it means to face an ordeal. It is spelled similarly but is unrelated to being thin.
Practice
After weeks of illness he looked ___, with hollow cheeks and visible bones.
Choose one answer.
Gaunt describes a bony, hollow thinness from suffering. Stout means heavy, so it is the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “gaunt”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.