Word.ws English Dictionary

priapism

/ˈpraɪ.əˌpɪ.zəm/

priapism noun: a potentially painful or harmful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state (despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation), often as a result of a spinal injury.

Noun

priapism (countable and uncountable, plural priapisms)

  1. (uncountable) A potentially painful or harmful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state (despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation), often as a result of a spinal injury.
  2. (countable) An instance of this.
    • Phosphorus has long been considered a powerful stimulant. It acts upon the generative organism, it is recorded, in a manner to cause the most violent priapisms.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 191
  3. (figuratively) The obsessive focus on one's genitals or on the need for genital gratification.
    • [M]any on the right have found themselves justifying our current president's priapism with the same arguments that liberals once used to excuse Clinton.2018 September 26, Ross Douthat, “Brett Kavanaugh and the Limits of Certainty”, in The New York Times

priapism meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Indonesian and Persian

priapism in Hindi

medical condition
प्रायापिज़्म prāyāpizma

priapism in Tamil

குறி விறைப்பு, குறி விறைப்பியம், சிசன விறைப்பு, சிறுபிள்ளைத்தனமான செயல்

priapism in Indonesian

medical condition
priapisme

priapism in Persian

medical condition
نغوظ دائم
More languagesFewer languages
priapism in Thai
ภาวะองคชาตแข็งค้าง
priapism in Vietnamese
chứng cương đau

Forms of priapism

pluralpriapisms

Origin of priapism

From Latin priapismus, from Priapus (“the god of procreation, the penis”) + -ism, from Ancient Greek πριαπισμός (priapismós).

Words formed from priapism

Questions about priapism

What does priapism mean?
Priapism means a potentially painful or harmful medical condition in which the erect penis does not return to its flaccid state (despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation), often as a result of a spinal injury.
What is priapism in Hindi?
Priapism in Hindi is प्रायापिज़्म (prāyāpizma). See Priapism meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is priapism?
Priapism is a noun.
How do you pronounce priapism?
Priapism is pronounced /ˈpraɪ.əˌpɪ.zəm/ (US).
What is the plural of priapism?
The plural of priapism is priapisms.

Words near priapism in the dictionary

  1. Priapean
  2. Priapeans
  3. priapi
  4. priapic
  5. priapically
  6. priapism
  7. priapismic
  8. priapisms
  9. priapist
  10. priapistic
  11. priapists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: priapism (page history and authors); priapism (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-priapism.oga.

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