Zoophile

//ˈzəʊ.ə.faɪl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person sexually attracted to non-human animals.
  2. 2
    A person who in their ethical propositions puts animals on a level with humans.

    "It is not, after all, the 'anti-speciesist', the 'animal liberationist', the radical zoophile who 'attributes a mystical persona' to animals. We simply say that if it is wrong to cause avoidable distress then it is wrong to torture, enslave and kill creatures not of our species for our own, frequently trivial, profit."

  3. 3
    A furry (member of the furry fandom) broadly, derogatory, nonstandard
Adjective
  1. 1
    Preferring a beast milieu. Misconstruction of zoophilic.

    "The manifestation of severely inflammatory, infiltrated and asymmetrical-disseminated plaques with well-defined borders in children should immediately suggest a zoophile dermatophytosis, especially when there is a plausible ‘history of animal contact’. An infection with T. mentagrophytes typically involves a severe eczematous skin reaction and sometimes the appearance of pustules. The areas of face, neck and arms are the most frequently affected in zoophilic dermatophyte infections."

  2. 2
    Supporting policies favourable to animal lives. Misconstruction of zoophilic.

    "The notion that an ecosystem, or a species, is intrinsically valuable (apart from the enjoyments it provides to individuals) is one that zoophiles may dislike as much as libertarians (as Regan 1983). Spinoza, whose thought has been an inspiration both to environmentalists and to libertarians, was fiercely non-zoophile (Spinoza, Ethics 4p47sl; see Clark 1987)."

Example

More examples

"It is not, after all, the 'anti-speciesist', the 'animal liberationist', the radical zoophile who 'attributes a mystical persona' to animals. We simply say that if it is wrong to cause avoidable distress then it is wrong to torture, enslave and kill creatures not of our species for our own, frequently trivial, profit."

Etymology

From zoo- + -phile.

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