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pica

noun

Simple meaning

A disorder having appetite and craving for non-edible substances, such as chalk, clay, dirt, ice.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

pykuh

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈpaɪkə

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. pathologyusually uncountable

    A disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances, such as chalk, clay, dirt, ice, or sand.

  2. countable

    A magpie.

  3. typographyprintinguncountable

    A size of type between small pica and English, now standardized as 12-point.

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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.