Definition of "geophagia" []

• Consumption of clay, chalk or dirt. (noun)

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• "I thought that was an irrelevant example, because people don't normally eat tobacco and tobacco use is such a recent invention in human history that I can't see how it could have anything to do with the origin of geophagia that is said to have been practiced in ancient Sumeria."
• "An interesting news article by Trevor Stokes in this week's Nature vol. 444, pp.543-544 is about geophagia, the practice of eating soil, usually clay, by humans."
• "The article reports that geophagia is present in many parts of the world, but from the examples mentioned, it seems to be most prevalent among African children and pregnant women."