Puerilism

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Childlike behavior by an adult, especially as indicating a mental disorder. uncountable, usually

    "With regard to hysteria; in dissociation there may be a secondary time disorder; for example a patient with puerilism said: "People all seem grown up and older. And my Mum, I'm sure I know her from a long time ago. I look at her, but I can't make it out.""

Synonyms

All synonyms
childishnessimmaturityinfantilismpuerility

Example

More examples

"With regard to hysteria; in dissociation there may be a secondary time disorder; for example a patient with puerilism said: "People all seem grown up and older. And my Mum, I'm sure I know her from a long time ago. I look at her, but I can't make it out.""

Etymology

From puerile + -ism.

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