Solastalgia
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A form of homesickness experienced when one has not moved, but one's environment has changed. uncountable
"There are many people writing and talking about extinction now, and about solastalgia, the psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change. Artists, musicians, dancers, and screenwriters are wringing profound solastalgia from the recesses of our collective subconscious and spinning its trajectory out into the light where we can get a better sense of it."
Example
More examples"There are many people writing and talking about extinction now, and about solastalgia, the psychic or existential distress caused by environmental change. Artists, musicians, dancers, and screenwriters are wringing profound solastalgia from the recesses of our collective subconscious and spinning its trajectory out into the light where we can get a better sense of it."
Etymology
Coined by Australian philosopher and researcher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 from Latin sōlācium (“solace, comfort”) + -algia (“pain”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.