A hunchback is an old-fashioned term for a person with a severely curved or hunched upper spine, creating a rounded hump on their back. This condition, which doctors call kyphosis when it is extreme, can happen because of injury, disease, or the way someone's body develops.

The word appears often in classic literature and movies, most famously in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo's novel about Quasimodo, a kind-hearted bell ringer with a hunched back who lives in a cathedral tower. In many old stories, characters with hunchbacks were treated cruelly or avoided by others because of their appearance, even though their physical condition had nothing to do with their character or abilities.

Today the term hunchback is considered outdated and disrespectful. Modern medicine can often help people with severe spinal curves through braces, physical therapy, or surgery. If you are talking about someone with this condition today, it is more respectful to describe them as “a person with kyphosis” or simply by their name, focusing on who they are rather than their medical condition.