Word.ws English Dictionary

alexithymia

/əˌlɛk.sɪˈθaɪ.mi.ə/

alexithymia noun: a deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions.

Noun

alexithymia (uncountable)

  1. A deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions.
    • Finally, schizophrenic disorders involve impairments of perceptions, including hallucinations and delusions, symptoms that often impair patients’ social and occupational functioning and can create alexithymia (Maggini and Raballo 2004; van ‛t Wout et al. 2007), an inability to recognize one’s own...2008, Amy Kroska and Sarah K. Harkness, “Exploring the Role of Diagnosis in the Modified Labeling Theory of Mental Illness” in Social Psychology Quarterly LXXI, № 2 (Wrestling with Social Psychology...

alexithymia meaning in Tamil and Arabic

alexithymia in Tamil

சொல்லொணா உணர்வு

alexithymia in Arabic

deficiency in understanding emotions
أَلِكْسِيثَيْمِيَا ʔaliksīṯaymiyā, لَامُفْرَدَاتِيّة lāmufradātiyya

Origin of alexithymia

From a- + lexi + -thymia. Created by psychiatrists John Case Nemiah and Peter Sifneos from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not”) + λέξις (léxis, “speaking”) + θυμός (thumós, “heart”), meaning “without words for emotions”.

Words formed from alexithymia

Questions about alexithymia

What does alexithymia mean?
Alexithymia means a deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions.
What is alexithymia in Tamil?
Alexithymia in Tamil is சொல்லொணா உணர்வு. See Alexithymia meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is alexithymia?
Alexithymia is a noun.
How do you pronounce alexithymia?
Alexithymia is pronounced /əˌlɛk.sɪˈθaɪ.mi.ə/.

Words near alexithymia in the dictionary

  1. alexiteric
  2. alexiterical
  3. alexiterics
  4. alexiteries
  5. alexitery
  6. alexithymia
  7. alexithymic
  8. alexithymics
  9. Alexius
  10. alexjejewite
  11. alexkhomyakovite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alexithymia (page history and authors); alexithymia (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-US-alexithymia.wav.

Cite this entry: “alexithymia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alexithymia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.