Neophilia
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The love of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations. uncountable, usually
"LIKE SOCIABILITY, conscientiousness, or any other trait, your particular expression of neophilia has potential advantagesand drawbacks. Exploiting its strengths and compensating for its limitations begins with an understanding of your […]"
- 2 The preference for any new foods not forming part of the diet associated with an earlier nutritional deficiency or other illness. uncountable, usually
"In order to account for the appearance of a novelty response in the deficient or recovered rat, Rozin and Rodgers (1967) suggest that either the state of deficiency triggers an innate neophilia, or that the deficient rat develops an aversion to the deficient diet and thus shows a strong preference for any new food. […] The neophilia of thiamine-deficient rats could be a direct consequence of a specific aversion for familiar deficient diet (paleophobia). On the other hand, it is also possible that a true neophilia exists along with the paleophobia."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"LIKE SOCIABILITY, conscientiousness, or any other trait, your particular expression of neophilia has potential advantagesand drawbacks. Exploiting its strengths and compensating for its limitations begins with an understanding of your […]"
Etymology
From neo- + -philia.
More for "neophilia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.