Word.ws English Dictionary

Cinderella complex

Cinderella complex noun: the situation where a woman has an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others, and thus requires help from some outside force, usually a man.

Noun

Cinderella complex (plural Cinderella complexes)

  1. The situation where a woman has an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others, and thus requires help from some outside force, usually a man.

Forms of Cinderella complex

pluralCinderella complexes

Origin of Cinderella complex

From the title of a book by Colette Dowling, The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence (1981). Named after the girl from the fairy-tale Cinderella, who is rescued from her life of poverty and mistreatment by a prince.

Questions about Cinderella complex

What does Cinderella complex mean?
Cinderella complex means the situation where a woman has an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others, and thus requires help from some outside force, usually a man.
What part of speech is Cinderella complex?
Cinderella complex is a noun.
What is the plural of Cinderella complex?
The plural of Cinderella complex is Cinderella complexes.

Words near Cinderella complex in the dictionary

  1. cinderblocks
  2. cindered
  3. cinderella
  4. Cinderella club
  5. Cinderella clubs
  6. Cinderella complex
  7. Cinderella complexes
  8. Cinderella dance
  9. Cinderella dances
  10. Cinderella effect
  11. Cinderella liberties

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cinderella complex (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)-Flame, not lame-Cinderella complex.wav.

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