Word.ws English Dictionary

lachesism

/ˈlækəˌsɪzəm/

lachesism noun: the yearning for the clarity or reprioritisation afforded by surviving a disaster.

Noun

lachesism (uncountable)

  1. (neologism, rare) The yearning for the clarity or reprioritisation afforded by surviving a disaster.
    • I'd always been fascinated by lightning and had always had an unexplainable lachesism. I'm not sure why I had this desire to be struck by disaster and survive, to be struck by lightning in fact, […]2015, Johnny Close, Eco-Lonely, page 110
    • "What if I become just another flower on the side of the road?" I looked to him, shaking uncontrollably yet strangely calmed by an underlying sense of lachesism.2019, Jonna Wahl, Bloody Bloom, unnumbered page

Origin of lachesism

From Lachesis + -ism; coined by American author and neologist John Koenig, creator of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, with reference to the Ancient Greek goddess Lachesis, the Fate responsible for allotting the span of each mortal's life.

Questions about lachesism

What does lachesism mean?
Lachesism means the yearning for the clarity or reprioritisation afforded by surviving a disaster.
What part of speech is lachesism?
Lachesism is a noun.
How do you pronounce lachesism?
Lachesism is pronounced /ˈlækəˌsɪzəm/.

Words near lachesism in the dictionary

  1. laches
  2. Lachesian
  3. lachesillid
  4. lachesillids
  5. Lachesis
  6. lachesism
  7. lachha
  8. Lachica
  9. Lachicas
  10. Lachie
  11. Lachiewicz-Sibley syndrome

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lachesism (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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