Standard Lemma guide

paraphilia

noun · 3 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.

  • păr'ə-fĭl'ē-ə
  • /ˌpæɹəˈfɪliə/

1

noun

Meaning 1

An abnormal sexual arousal or attraction, especially to objects or situations that are not of a sexual nature; typically of extreme or pathological nature.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: lifestyle, sexology, sexuality

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: normophilia

2

noun

Meaning 2

Sexual arousal in response to sexual objects or situations which may interfere with the capacity for reciprocal affectionate sexual activity or lead to clinically significant distress or impairment (e.g. are obligatory, require participation of unconsenting individuals, lead to legal issues).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: lifestyle, sexology, sexuality

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

abnormal sexual activity

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: perversion, sexual perversion

Narrower terms: exhibitionism, immodesty, fetishism, fetichism, pedophilia, paedophilia, voyeurism, zoophilia, zoophilism, pederasty, paederasty

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh2- Proto-Hellenic *pərai Ancient Greek πᾰρᾰ́ (părắ) Ancient Greek πᾰρᾰ- (pără-)der. English para- Proto-Indo-European *bhil- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bhil-o-s Ancient Greek φῐ́λος (phĭ́los) Proto-Indo-European *-h2 Proto-Indo-European *-éh2 Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh2 Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek φῐλῐ́ᾱ (phĭlĭ́ā)der. English -philia English paraphilia From para- (“abnormal”) + -philia.

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 性慾倒錯 /性欲倒错 (xìngyù dàocuò) — sexual deviation
  • Czech: parafilie — sexual deviation
  • Danish: parafili — sexual deviation
  • Finnish: parafilia — sexual deviation
  • French: paraphilie — sexual deviation
  • Greek: παραφιλία (parafilía) — sexual deviation
  • Icelandic: kynlífsafbrigði — sexual deviation
  • Irish: paraifilia — sexual deviation
  • Japanese: 性的倒錯 (seiteki tōsaku) — sexual deviation
  • Japanese: 性的嗜好障害 (seiteki shikō shōgai) — sexual deviation
  • Japanese: 性嗜好異常 (seishikō ijō) — sexual deviation
  • Kazakh: парафилия (parafiliä) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 성적 도착 (seongjeok dochak) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 성도착 (seongdochak) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 성욕 도착 (seong'yok dochak) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 색정 도착 (saekjeong dochak) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 이상 성욕 (isang seong'yok) — sexual deviation
  • Korean: 변태 성욕 (byeontae seong'yok) — sexual deviation
  • Polish: parafilia — sexual deviation
  • Portuguese: parafilia — sexual deviation
  • Russian: парафили́я (parafilíja) — sexual deviation
  • Spanish: parafilia — sexual deviation
  • Swedish: parafili — sexual deviation
  • Thai: โรคกามวิปริต — sexual deviation
  • Turkish: parafili — sexual deviation
  • Vietnamese: lệch lạc tình dục — sexual deviation