Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Morbid

Definition: Morbid

Morbid

Adjective

1. Suggesting an unhealthy mental state; "morbid interest in death"; "morbid curiosity".

2. Suggesting the horror of death and decay; "morbid details".

3. Caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology; "diseased tonsils"; "a morbid growth"; "pathologic tissue"; "pathological bodily processes".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "morbid" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Morbid \Mor"bid\, adjective. [Latin expression morbidus, from morbus disease; probably akin to mori to die: compare to the French expression morbide, Italian morbido. See Mortal.]. (Websters 1913)


Synonyms: Morbid

Synonyms: diseased (adj), ghoulish (adj), pathologic (adj), pathological (adj). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Morbid

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Disease

Unsound, unhealthy; sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced. drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting.

Morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered; rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core; withered, palsied, paralytic;dyspeptic; luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic; syntectic, syntectical; tabetic, varicose.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Morbid

English words defined with "morbid": acarophobia, acrophobia, agoraphobia, ailurophobia, algophobia, androphobia, aquaphobia, astraphobiablack humor, black humour, Blood poisoning, broodingcarnality, Cavernous respiration, Cerebral softening, Chloralism, Chyluria, claustrophobia, Counterirritate, cryophobia, cynophobiaDartrous diathesis, Depravation, Desudation, Discussive, Discutient, diseased, Diseasednessentomophobia, Erythematicgleet, gynophobiaHeteropathy, Hospitalism, Humoral pathology, hypnophobiaIodismlasciviousness, lepidophobia, Limosis, London pastemajor depressive episode, Melanaemia, morbidly, Morbose, Morphinism, musophobia, mysophobianeophobia, Nervous deafness, nyctophobiaOchlesis-omaOrganic disease, OrthopnyPaludism, pathologic, pathological, Pectoriloquy, pensiveness, phobophobia, photophobia, Pigmentary degeneration, Prosphysis, prurience, pruriency, pyrophobiaRingbone, RussophobiaSago spleen, Scirrhosity, Scleriasis, Sick room, Sidebone, Sleepwaking, Softening of the brain, Solidism, Spanaemia, Splenization, Sthenictaphephobia, thanatophobia, traumatophobia, triskaidekaphobiaWandering kidney, Wandering liver, White fluxzoophobia. (references)
Specialty definitions using "morbid": Gastric Balloon, Gastric Bypass, GastroplastyJamie, Jejunoileal BypassMelancholy Jacques, melga-dos-pradosQuack Medicine. (references)
Etymologies containing "morbid": DiseasednessMorbidezzaPhlegm. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Morbid" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

German (degenerate, morbid, morbidly), Romanian (diseased, morbid).

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Modern Usage: Morbid

DomainUsage

Screenplays

It is only out of sheer morbid curiosity that I am allowing this freak show to continue. (Liar Liar; writing credit: Paul Guay; Stephen Mazur)

You know you shouldn't look, but there is a certain morbid fascination! (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein)

Where's the crabby scowl, the morbid gloom? (Angel; writing credit: Letcia Dornelles)

I guess it's just my morbid personality. (Rebel Without a Cause; writing credit: Nicholas Ray; Irving Shulman)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Morbid

DomainTitle

Books

  • A Morbid Taste for Bones (reference)

  • Alexandria Presents: Morbid Fascinations [DOWNLOAD: MICROSOFT READER] (reference)

  • Morbid Appearances : The Anatomy of Pathology in the Early Nineteenth Century (reference)

  • Morbid Curiosities (reference)

  • The Morbid Kitchen (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Theater & Movies

  • Brother Cadfael - A Morbid Taste for Bones (reference)

  • Brother Cadfael: A Morbid Taste for Bones (reference)

    (more DVD examples; more video examples)

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Morbid

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Morbid Appearances of the Spinal System in Tetanus / Holbrooke. Credit: National Library of Medicine.

Inviting the undertaker. Ignore the morbid fact that this double white line is a memorial to hundreds and thousands who took a chance. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Morbid

AuthorQuotation

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

Nathalie Sarraute

Suspicion is one of the morbid reactions by which an organism defends itself and seeks another equilibrium.

Oscar Wilde

The modern sympathy with invalids is morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Morbid

TitleAuthorQuote

Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

She felt a morbid desire to ascertain the point.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Morbid

SubjectTopicQuote

Health

The principal concern is whether more severe anemia is related to morbid events. (references)

Morbid events include wound infection, delayed wound healing, bleeding, and impaired recovery. (references)

This would allow low-risk women to avoid costly and potentially morbid diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Morbid

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Dennis Miller

At heart, we are a nation of morbid rubberneckers.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Speeches: Morbid

SpeakerTermPhrase(s)

Franklin Pierce

1853-1857To every theory of society or government, whether the offspring of feverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern resistance.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: Morbid

"Morbid" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Morbid" is used about 191 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)100%19122,216

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Morbid

Expression using "morbid": morbid anatomy. Additional references.

Hypenated Usage

Ending with "morbid": pre-morbid.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Morbid

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

morbid obesity

433

angel morbid tab

11

morbid angel

272

death morbid

11

morbid

218

treatment of morbid obesity

10

morbid obesity surgery

146

morbid vision

7

book information morbid obesity

106

image morbid

7

association for morbid obesity support

60

clothing morbid

7

morbid picture

57

death morbid picture

7

morbid humor

51

angle morbid

6

association for morbid obesity

44

morbid angel shirt

6

metal morbid

41

morbid wallpaper

6

morbid threads

36

make morbid up

6

art morbid

29

art morbid work

6

morbid poetry

18

morbid obesity photo

6

morbid pic

18

morbid angel mp3

6

morbid obesity picture

16

clothing morbid threads

5

morbid photo

16

morbid curiosity

5

morbid quote

16

co condition general in medical morbid patient psychiatric

5

backup morbid

14

morbid tattoo

5

angel lyrics morbid

13

morbid prince

5

morbid poem

11

drawing morbid

5

fact morbid

11

morbid metal body jewelry

5

morbid fact du jour

11

morbid obesity support

5
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Morbid

Language Translations for "morbid"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

patologjik (pathological), ngjethës (creepy, shivering, shocking, shuddering), i sëmurë (ailing, bad, case, compulsive, diseased, down, ill, invalid, noisome, pathological, patient, seedy, sick, sufferer, unhealthy, unsound, unwell), i frikshëm (bloodcurdling, dreadful, eerie, eery, fearful, fearsome, forbidding, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, redoubtable, redoubted, terrific, tremendous). (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏كئيب إلى شىء ما, ‏مولد مرضا, ‏مرضي (fulfilling, invalid, pathological, sick), ‏ناشئ عن مرض, ‏رهيب (bloodcurdling, bloody, chilly, dire, dreadful, fearful, fierce, grisly, gruesome, hairy, holy, horrible, horrific, lurid, macabre, monstrous, nightmarish, redoubtable, smashing, super, terrible, wretched). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

страхотен (awesome, devilish, direful, fearsome, formidable, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, tremendous, unearthly), ужасен (aghast, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, deadly, desperate, deuced, devastating, dire, direful, dreadful, eldritch, execrable, fearful, fearsome, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, grievous, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, horror-stricken, lurid, macabre, miserable, murderous, planet-stricken, planet-struck, precious, sad, septic, terrible, terrific, towering, tremendous, unholy, unmentionable, vicious, wretched), грозен (eyesore, grotesque, hideous, ill-favored, ill-favoured, ugly, unlovely, unsightly), отвратителен (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, atrocious, awful, beastly, bestial, carrion, creepy, cursed, damnable, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, execrable, foul, fulsome, gruesome, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrible, ill-favored, ill-favoured, infamous, loathsome, lousy, miserable, nasty, nauseous, noisome, odious, offensive, punk, putrid, rank, repellent, revolting, rotten, septic, shocking, sickening, ugly, unholy, unsavory, unsavoury, unspeakable, villainous, wicked), нездрав (feverish, insalubrious, noisome, sallow, unhealthy, unsound), мрачен (black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, darksome, dejected, depressing, dim, dingy, dismal, drab, drear, dumpish, dusky, forbidding, gaunt, gloomy, glum, grave, grey, grim, grisly, heavy, inhospitable, joyless, low-browed, lowering, melancholy, mirk, morose, murk, murky, obscure, sad, saturnine, somber, sombre, sullen, sunless, tenebrous, thick, tristful), болестен (peccant), болезнен (afflictive, diseased, painful, peccant, sick, sore, torturous, unsound, wicked), патологичен (pathological, teratoid). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

疾病 (Ailment, Disease, morbidly). (various references)

   

Czech

  

morbidní (ghoulish, sick), patologický (compulsive), hřbitovní, chorobní. (various references)

   

Danish

  

vaevsundersoegelse (morbid anatomy and histopathology), sygelig soevnighed (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), sygdomssekvens (sequence of morbid conditions), sengesoegen (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), patologisk anatomi og histologi (morbid anatomy and histopathology), lidelse (morbid condition), enegænger (morbid recluse person), clinomani (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), anatomisk-patologisk laboratorium (morbid anatomy laboratory). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

solitair (alone, just, only, solely), pathologische anatomie (morbid anatomy and histopathology), pathologisch-anatomisch laboratorium (morbid anatomy laboratory), eenzelvig (morbid recluse person), clinomanie (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), clinomania (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), bedzucht (excessive necessity for sleep, morbid sleepiness), alleenstaand (isolated, living alone, secluded, single). (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

مریض (Patient, Sick), ناسالم (Insanitary, Unhealthy, Unsound), ناخوش (Ill, Sick, Unhealthy, Unsound, Unwell), ویژه ناخوشی , وحشت اور (Awesome, Gruesome, Terrible). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

sairas (diseased, ill, indisposed, patholigical, patient, sick, sick person, unwell), epäterve. (various references)

   

French

  

morbide, lugubre, horrifiant. (various references)

   

German

  

morbid (degenerate, morbidly), krankhaft (abnormal, chronic, diseased, ill-looking, morbidly, pathological, sickly, unhealthy). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

νοσώδησ (unhealthy), νοσηρόσ (sickly, unsound), παθολογικόσ (compulsive, pathologic, pathological). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

מ"וכא (blue, dejected, depressed, down, down in the mouth, gloomy, hypochondriac, liverish), חול" רוח (insane, mad, mental case, psychopath), חול י (ailing, sick, sickly, unhealthy, weakly). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

kóros (diseased, morbidity, pathological, peccant, pernicious). (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

murung (glum, lugubrious, melancholic, mopish, mopy, morose, querulous), penyakitan, abnormal (abnormal). (various references)

   

Italian

  

morboso (pathological, unhealthy), malsano (diseased, ill, sick, sickly, unhealthy, unwholesome), malato (bad, diseased, ill, sick, sick person, sufferer, unhealthy, unsound, unwell), patologico (pathological, pathologically). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

不健全 (unhealthful). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

ふけ"ぜ" (unhealthful). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

(Bottle, illness, sickness). (various references)

   

Manx

  

foudagh (damaged), doghanagh (diseased, disordered, ill, sick person, sickly). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

orbidmay

   

Portuguese

  

mórbido (diseased, unhealthy, unsound), patológico (pathological), doentio (crank, diseased, green, insalubrious, insanitary, reckling, sickly, unhealthy, unsound, unwholesome, wan, weak, weakly, wishy-washy). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

morbid (diseased), patologic (pathologic, pathologically). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

отвратительный (abhorrent, abominable, crummy, cursed, damned, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, evolving, execrable, filthy, foul, fulsome, ghoulish, gruesome, hateful, heinous, hideous, loathsome, nameless, nasty, nauseous, obnoxious, poisonous, rank, repugnant, revolting, sickening, stinking, unsavory, unsavoury, vile), болезненный (achy, afflictive, ailing, cachectic, painful, peccant, pimping, sickly, squeamish, unhealthy, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weakly), психически нездоровый, патологический (pathologic, pathological). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

morbidan (sick), bolestan (bad, diseased, ill, sick). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

mórbido (delicate, diseased). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

sjuklig (ailing, diseased, distempered, infirm, invalid, pathological, sickly, unhealthy, unsound, valetudinarian, valetudinary, wan). (various references)

   

Thai

  

เป็นโรค (have), ผิ"ปกติ (eccentric, irregular). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

marazi şeylere ilgi duyan, marazi, hastalıklı (Dickey, dicky, diseased, infirm, sickly, unwholesome, valetudinarian, valetudinary, weakly). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

хворобливо підозрілий, хворобливий (cachectic, crocky, diseased, frail, unhealthy, valetudinarian, weakly, wishy washy), патологічний (pathologic). (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

bệnh tật (actuary, invalid). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

afiach (dirty, sick, unhealthy, unwell, unwholesome). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Morbid

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

morbidus. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Morbid

Derivations

Words beginning with "morbid": morbidities, morbidity, morbidly, morbidness, morbidnesses. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Morbid" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Marbod, Marwidk, Merid, merrid, midbody, mobi, mobidip, Morabit, Morbey, Morbi, morbide, morbido, morbids, morbif, morbis, morbit, morbod, morbus, Morby, mordbity, Morfit, Morfitt, morir, Mrbi, mrobid, Mugrabi, murrid, Norbit, norbu, Noribic, sorbid. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Morbid"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "morbid" (pronounced mô"rbud)
3-b u drabid, rosebud.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Morbid

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: bromid.

Words within the letters "b-d-i-m-o-r"

-2 letters: bird, brim, brio, dorm, drib, modi.

-3 letters: bid, bio, bod, bro, dib, dim, dom, dor, mib, mid, mir, mob, mod, mor, obi, orb, rib, rid, rim, rob, rod, rom.

-4 letters: bi, bo, do, id, mi, mo, od, om, or.

 Words containing the letters "b-d-i-m-o-r"
 

+1 letter: ambroid, bromide, bromids.

 

+2 letters: amberoid, ambroids, biformed, bromides, bromidic, bromized, embodier, embryoid, morbidly, moribund, rhomboid.

 

+3 letters: amberoids, blindworm, bromeliad, embodiers, embroider, embroiled, embryoids, hybridoma, imbowered, imbrowned, morbidity, rhomboids, scombroid.

 

+4 letters: blindworms, bombardier, bombarding, bridegroom, bromeliads, brominated, embroiders, embroidery, firebombed, formidable, formidably, hybridomas, middlebrow, mindblower, mislabored, monohybrid, morbidness, motorbiked, recombined, reembodied, reembodies, rhomboidal, rhomboidei, scombroids.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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Alternative Orthography: Morbid


Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

4D 6F 72 62 69 64

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)

=

Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)

Braille (1829, in France) (references)

Morse Code (1836) (references)

--    ---    .-.    -...    ..    -..

Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001101 01101111 01110010 01100010 01101001 01100100

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#77 &#111 &#114 &#98 &#105 &#100

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

004D 006F 0072 0062 0069 0064

British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

478184687570

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Familiar
8. Quotations: Fiction
9. Quotations: Non-fiction
10. Quotations: Spoken
11. Quotations: Speeches
12. Usage Frequency
13. Expressions
14. Expressions: Internet
15. Translations: Modern
16. Translations: Ancient
17. Derivations
18. Rhymes
19. Anagrams
20. Orthography
21. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.