dysthymia
dysthymia noun: a tendency to be depressed, without hope.
Noun
dysthymia (usually uncountable, plural dysthymias)
- A tendency to be depressed, without hope.
- Other [subway] passengers showed no outward signs of distress. They appeared to have homes and money and good health, they carried briefcases or bags. … Their faces didn't cave in despair or trouble or strain. But they still had a walled-off look, their brows furrowed, their eyes cast deep into...2021, Lisa Miller, The Awakened Brain, Ch.1, at p.25
- Synonyms:
- depression, despondence, dejectedness, gloom, lypemania
- A form of clinical depression, characterized by low-grade depression which lasts at least two years.
- For diagnostic, research, and treatment reasons, a distinction should always be made between the milder dysthymias, atypical and hysteroid depressions, and the more serious major depressive illnesses, with and without melancholic (vegetative) and psychotic features.1989, James F. Masterson, Ralph Klein, editors, Psychotherapy of the Disorders of the Self: The Masterson Approach, page 369
- A decade ago most psychiatrists would have been puzzled to find a chapter on dysthymia in a book about severe depressive disorders. They would have characterized this chronic form of depression as mild, "minor," or "syndromal."[…]In recent years, research has demonstrated the severity, prevalence...1994, John C. Markowitz, James H. Kocsis, “Chapter 9: Dysthymia”, in Leon Grunhaus, John F. Greden, editors, Severe Depressive Disorders, page 209
- Synonyms:
- persistent depressive disorder, PDD
- Antonyms:
- euthymia
Examples of dysthymia in a sentence
- A decade ago most psychiatrists would have been puzzled to find a chapter on dysthymia in a book about severe depressive disorders.1994, John C. Markowitz, James H. Kocsis, “Chapter 9: Dysthymia”, in Leon Grunhaus, John F. Greden, editors, Severe Depressive Disorders...
- Dysthymia in childhood or adulthood also significantly increases the risk of developing a subsequent major depressive episode.2007, Jon G. Allen, Coping With Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope, page 12:
Synonyms of dysthymia
Antonyms
Forms of dysthymia
| plural | dysthymias |
|---|
Origin of dysthymia
From dys- + -thymia. From Ancient Greek δυσθυμία (dusthumía, “despondency, despair; ill-temper”), from δυσ- (dus-, “bad”) + θυμός (thumós, “soul, spirit”).
Questions about dysthymia
- What does dysthymia mean?
- Dysthymia means a tendency to be depressed, without hope.
- How do you use dysthymia in a sentence?
- A decade ago most psychiatrists would have been puzzled to find a chapter on dysthymia in a book about severe depressive disorders.
- What part of speech is dysthymia?
- Dysthymia is a noun.
- What is the plural of dysthymia?
- The plural of dysthymia is dysthymias.
Words near dysthymia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dysthymia (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: “dysthymia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dysthymia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.