Use 'emaciation' in appropriate contexts, usually medical or situations involving extreme lack of food.

Context Specificity

'Emaciation' can also occur without illness, such as from malnutrition or purposeful dieting.

Not Just Illness

'Emaciation' often evokes empathy or concern; use it to convey the gravity of someone's physical state.

'Emaciation' isn't only for describing people; it can describe animals, plants, or even metaphoric deterioration.

The word can emphasize the process or progression towards becoming very thin, not just the state itself.

Emaciation usually implies a gradual process, not something happening overnight.