Pedophobe

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who dislikes children. US, rare

    "Like Kincaid's pedophile, who embodies a prohibited extreme of child-love, the pedophobe in children's literature occupies a similar place, giving voice to the most hyperbolic expressions of child-hate, sometimes even as a source of pleasure for child-hating adult (or child) readers who might consciously or unconsciously identify with the pedophobe."

  2. 2
    A person who fears or dislikes pedophiles. US, rare

    "Perhaps that has to do with the number of people who DO use the word "pedophile" interchangably with the term "child molester". If you live with that prejudice every day then you would tend to get somewhat defensive wouldn't you? […] I'm not a pedophile, and the actions of certain pedophobes have caused me to be offended by the misuse of the word."

Example

More examples

"Like Kincaid's pedophile, who embodies a prohibited extreme of child-love, the pedophobe in children's literature occupies a similar place, giving voice to the most hyperbolic expressions of child-hate, sometimes even as a source of pleasure for child-hating adult (or child) readers who might consciously or unconsciously identify with the pedophobe."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From pedo- (“child”) + -phobe.

Etymology 2

From pedo (“pedophile”) + -phobe.

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