Word.ws English Dictionary

pro-ana

Syllables: pro-a·naUK/ˌpɹoʊˈæ.nə//ˌpɹəʊˈæ.nə/

pro-ana noun: a movement for the promotion of behaviors related to anorexia nervosa.

Noun

pro-ana (plural pro-anas)

  1. A movement for the promotion of behaviors related to anorexia nervosa.
    • Pro-ana is not a disease, Mr. Crane, it's a lifestyle choice.2006 December 5, David E. Kelley, Sanford Golden, The Nutcrackers (Boston Legal), season 3, episode 10, spoken by Shelley Ford (Christine Dunford)
    • Alicia: It's a pro-ana website, isn't it?
      Diane: Objection. Relevance?
      Howard: Yeah, I- I don't get it. What is that?
      Alicia: Pro-ana? It's a site intended to promote anorexia.2013 February 17, Robert King, Michelle King, Red Team/Blue Team (The Good Wife), season 4, episode 14, spoken by Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies)
  2. A member of this movement.
    • Beyond celebrating the aesthetic value of thinness, pro-anas claim that thinness is a reflection of excellence in other areas of one's life.2004 October 27, Eda R. Uca, Ana's Girls: The Essential Guide to the Underground Eating Disorder Community Online, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 69
    • But juxtaposed to a caveat about the life-threatening nature of anorexia is often an avowal of the pro-ana's goal: to help anorexics in their quest for the "ideal" (emaciated) body.2009, Avis Rumney, Dying to Please: Anorexia, Treatment and Recovery, 2nd edition, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, →OL, pages 25–26

Forms of pro-ana

pluralpro-anas

Origin of pro-ana

From pro- + ana (“anorexia nervosa”). Compare pro-mia.

Words that rhyme with pro-ana

13 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pro-ana

What does pro-ana mean?
Pro-ana means a movement for the promotion of behaviors related to anorexia nervosa.
What part of speech is pro-ana?
Pro-ana is a noun.
How do you pronounce pro-ana?
Pro-ana is pronounced /ˌpɹoʊˈæ.nə/ (UK).
What is the plural of pro-ana?
The plural of pro-ana is pro-anas.

Words near pro-ana in the dictionary

  1. pro-aborts
  2. pro-actively
  3. pro-adenohypophysis
  4. pro-am
  5. pro-ams
  6. pro-ana
  7. pro-anas
  8. pro-Asiatic
  9. pro-attitude
  10. Pro-Aves
  11. Pro-Avis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pro-ana (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pro-ana.wav.

Cite this entry: “pro-ana.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pro-ana. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.