Paraphilia

//ˌparəˈfɪlɪ.ə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An abnormal sexual arousal or attraction, especially to objects or situations that are not of a sexual nature; typically of extreme or pathological nature.

    "Despite the serial aspect of these killings, lust murder still remains a distinct subcategory of both sexual and serial murder. It is also referred to as erotophonophilia, one of the most extreme forms of paraphilia."

  2. 2
    abnormal sexual activity wordnet
  3. 3
    Sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity or lead to clinically significant distress or impairment (e.g. are obligatory, require participation of unconsenting individuals, lead to legal issues).

Synonyms

All synonyms
active algolagniaalgolagniaalgolagnyamphierotismautoeroticismbisexuality

Example

More examples

"The author's intolerance to paraphilia was received well by most of his fans."

Etymology

From para- (“abnormal”) + -philia.

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