Word.ws English Dictionary

katagelasticism

Syllables: kata·ge·las·ti·cism/ˌkætəd͡ʒəˈlæstɪsɪzm̩/

katagelasticism noun: obtaining pleasure from laughing at or mocking others.

Noun

katagelasticism (uncountable)

  1. (rare) Obtaining pleasure from laughing at or mocking others.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:katagelasticism.

Origin of katagelasticism

Coined by Willibald Ruch and René T. Proyer, assisted by Christian F. Hempelmann and Sean Harrigan, from Ancient Greek καταγελαστής (katagelastḗs, “mocker”), from καταγελάω (katageláō, “to laugh at, jeer at, laugh down”), from κατά (katá, “downwards”) + γελάω (geláō, “to laugh”).

Questions about katagelasticism

What does katagelasticism mean?
Katagelasticism means obtaining pleasure from laughing at or mocking others.
What part of speech is katagelasticism?
Katagelasticism is a noun.
How do you pronounce katagelasticism?
Katagelasticism is pronounced /ˌkætəd͡ʒəˈlæstɪsɪzm̩/.

Words near katagelasticism in the dictionary

  1. katafront
  2. katafronts
  3. katagana
  4. katagelast
  5. katagelastic
  6. katagelasticism
  7. katagelasticist
  8. katagelasticists
  9. katagelasts
  10. katagelophobia
  11. katagenesis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: katagelasticism (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:

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