Word.ws English Dictionary

candaulism

Syllables: can·daul·is·mUS/ˌkænˈdɑl.ɪ.zəm/

candaulism noun: a paraphilia, sexual practice, or fantasy in which a man exposes his female partner, or images of her, to other people for their voyeuristic pleasure.

Noun

candaulism (uncountable)

  1. (rare) A paraphilia, sexual practice, or fantasy in which a man exposes his female partner, or images of her, to other people for their voyeuristic pleasure.

Origin of candaulism

From Candaul(es) (“a king of Lydia”) + -ism, from an account in The Histories of Herodotus in which King Candaules conceived a plot to show his naked and unaware wife to his servant Gyges.

Questions about candaulism

What does candaulism mean?
Candaulism means a paraphilia, sexual practice, or fantasy in which a man exposes his female partner, or images of her, to other people for their voyeuristic pleasure.
What part of speech is candaulism?
Candaulism is a noun.
How do you pronounce candaulism?
Candaulism is pronounced /ˌkænˈdɑl.ɪ.zəm/ (US).

Words near candaulism in the dictionary

  1. candarin
  2. candarins
  3. Candating
  4. Candato
  5. Candaules
  6. candaulism
  7. candaulist
  8. candee
  9. candees
  10. candela
  11. candelabra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: candaulism (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.

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