Word.ws English Dictionary

knismesis

knismesis noun: light tickling often accompanied by an itching sensation.

Noun

knismesis (uncountable)

  1. Light tickling often accompanied by an itching sensation.
    • Pending a better nomenclature we suggest for the former the term knismesis and for the latter the term gargalesis, with the adjectives knismic and gargalic, hyperknismesis and hyper-gargalesis for excess, etc.1897, G. Stanley Hall, Arthur Alliń, “The Psychology of Tickling, Laughing, and the Comic”, in The American Journal of Psychology, 9(1) (Oct., 1897), pp. 1-41
    • One can readily elicit knismesis in oneself (this is easily demonstrated by dragging a fingernail lightly over one’s skin). However, one cannot produce gargalesis in oneself; the present investigation focuses on this peculiar fact.1999, Christine R. Harris, Nicholas Christenfeld, “Can a machine tickle?”, in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6(3) pp. 504-510

Origin of knismesis

From Ancient Greek κνησμός (knēsmós, “itching”) + -esis.

Questions about knismesis

What does knismesis mean?
Knismesis means light tickling often accompanied by an itching sensation.
What part of speech is knismesis?
Knismesis is a noun.

Words near knismesis in the dictionary

  1. knisheries
  2. knishery
  3. knishes
  4. Knisley
  5. Knisleys
  6. knismesis
  7. knismogenic
  8. knismolagnia
  9. Kniss
  10. Knisteneaux
  11. knit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: knismesis (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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