noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A psychological disorder that causes an uncontrollable obsession with stealing without economic or material need. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   an irresistible impulse to steal in the absence of any economic motive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

kleptophilia

Example

More examples

"John has a condition called kleptomania."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κλέπτω (kléptō, “I steal”) + -mania, analyzed as klepto- + -mania.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.