Observers of the distinctive modes of communication employed by young women suffering from anorexia nervosa tend to view the form and content of the language these young women use as a reflection of their deviant approach to food and eating. In this article, however, it is suggested that we turn our attention from the issue of how anorexic individuals communicate to the question of how certain individuals, no doubt eating-disordered women among them, use words themselves anorexically. The concept of an anorexia of language is illustrated by two case studies, one focusing on an 18-year-old woman manifesting a plurality of forms of anorexia, and another describing a 22-year-old woman whose anorexia manifested itself primarily in her use of language.