Standard Lemma guide

narcolepsy

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈnɑː(ɹ)kəˌlɛpsi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: N AA1 R K AH0 L EH2 P S IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable attacks of deep sleep, often brief, sometimes accompanied by paralysis and hallucinations.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences

Examples

  • Excitement-induced narcolepsy caused him to sleep through the most important events of his life.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a sleep disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable episodes of deep sleep

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he believes that narcolepsy is attributable to an inability to suppress REM sleep during waking

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: hypersomnia

History

Etymology

From French narcolepsie. By surface analysis, narco- + -lepsy, from Ancient Greek ναρκόω (narkóō, “put to sleep”) + λῆψις (lêpsis, “seizure”).

Across languages

Translations

50 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: narkolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Arabic: تغفيق — sleeping disorder
  • Armenian: նարկոպրեսիա (narkopresia) — sleeping disorder
  • Bashkir: нарколепсия (narkolepsiya) — sleeping disorder
  • Basque: narkolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Belarusian: наркалепсыя (narkaljepsyja) — sleeping disorder
  • Catalan: narcolèpsia — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 發作性睡病 /发作性睡病 (fāzuòxìng shuìbìng) — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 發作性嗜睡病 /发作性嗜睡病 (fāzuòxìng shìshuì bìng) — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 猝睡症 (cùshuìzhèng) — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 渴睡症 (kěshuìzhèng) — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 嗜眠病 (shìmiánbìng) — sleeping disorder
  • Chinese Mandarin: 嗜眠症 (shìmiánzhèng) — sleeping disorder
  • Czech: narkolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Danish: narkolepsi — sleeping disorder
  • Dutch: slaapzucht — sleeping disorder
  • Dutch: narcolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Estonian: narkolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Finnish: narkolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Finnish: nukahtelusairaus — sleeping disorder
  • French: narcolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Georgian: ნარკოლეფსია (narḳolepsia) — sleeping disorder
  • German: Narkolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Greek: ναρκοληψία (narkolipsía) — sleeping disorder
  • Hebrew: נרקולפסיה — sleeping disorder
  • Icelandic: drómasýki — sleeping disorder
  • Indonesian: narkolepsi — sleeping disorder
  • Irish: narcailéipse — sleeping disorder
  • Italian: narcolessia — sleeping disorder
  • Japanese: ナルコレプシー (narukorepushī) — sleeping disorder
  • Japanese: 居眠り病 (inemuri byō) — sleeping disorder
  • Kazakh: нарколепсия (narkolepsiä) — sleeping disorder
  • Korean: 기면증 (gimyeonjeung) — sleeping disorder
  • Kyrgyz: нарколепсия (narkolepsiya) — sleeping disorder
  • Lithuanian: narkolepsija — sleeping disorder
  • Marathi: नार्कोलेप्सी (nārkolepsī) — sleeping disorder
  • Norwegian: narkolepsi — sleeping disorder
  • Polish: narkolepsja — sleeping disorder
  • Portuguese: narcolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Romanian: narcolepsie — sleeping disorder
  • Russian: нарколе́псия (narkolépsija) — sleeping disorder
  • Scottish Gaelic: an galar tuiteamas-cadail — sleeping disorder
  • Serbo-Croatian: narkolepsija — sleeping disorder
  • Serbo-Croatian: нарколепсија — sleeping disorder
  • Slovak: narkolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Slovene: narkolepsija — sleeping disorder
  • Spanish: narcolepsia — sleeping disorder
  • Swedish: narkolepsi — sleeping disorder
  • Turkish: narkolepsi — sleeping disorder
  • Ukrainian: нарколе́псія (narkolépsija) — sleeping disorder
Real reading context

narcolepsy in complete knowledge articles