catalepsy
/ˈkætəˌlɛpsi/
catalepsy noun: a severe bodily condition, described in psychiatric pathology, marked by sudden rigidity, fixation of posture, and loss of contact with environmental conditions.
Noun
catalepsy (plural catalepsies)
- A severe bodily condition, described in psychiatric pathology, marked by sudden rigidity, fixation of posture, and loss of contact with environmental conditions.
- "But they could not have been asleep!" cried Lord John. "Dash it all, Challenger, you don't mean to believe that those folk were asleep with their staring eyes and stiff limbs and that awful death grin on their faces!" "It can only have been the condition that is called catalepsy," said Challenger.1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
- I was furious with Edgar Allan Poe for writing so accurately about this. His tales of catalepsy and live burial poisoned my childhood, and still killed me.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 190
catalepsy meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Indonesian and Persian
catalepsy in Tamil
- catalepsy
- மொய்யற்சன்னி moyyaṟcaṉṉi
catalepsy in Arabic
- catalepsy
- تَخَشُّب taḵaššub
catalepsy in Indonesian
- catalepsy
- katalepsi
catalepsy in Persian
- catalepsy
- چوبوارگی čub-vâregi
More languagesFewer languages
- catalepsy in Vietnamese
- chứng bắt thế
Forms of catalepsy
| plural | catalepsies |
|---|---|
| alternative form (dated) | catalepsis |
Origin of catalepsy
From Ancient Greek κατάληψις (katálēpsis, “act of seizing”), from καταλαμβάνω (katalambánō, “to seize”), from κατά (katá, “against”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”). By surface analysis, cata- + -lepsy.
Words formed from catalepsy
Questions about catalepsy
- What does catalepsy mean?
- Catalepsy means a severe bodily condition, described in psychiatric pathology, marked by sudden rigidity, fixation of posture, and loss of contact with environmental conditions.
- What is catalepsy in Tamil?
- Catalepsy in Tamil is மொய்யற்சன்னி (moyyaṟcaṉṉi). See Catalepsy meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is catalepsy?
- Catalepsy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce catalepsy?
- Catalepsy is pronounced /ˈkætəˌlɛpsi/.
- What is the plural of catalepsy?
- The plural of catalepsy is catalepsies.
Words near catalepsy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catalepsy (page history and authors); மொய்யற்சன்னி (Tamil) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catalepsy.wav.
Cite this entry: “catalepsy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catalepsy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.