sadism
/ˈseɪdɪzəm/US/ˈseɪdɪzəm/
sadism noun: the enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation without pity.
Noun
sadism (countable and uncountable, plural sadisms)
- The enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation without pity.
- Achievement of sexual gratification by inflicting pain or humiliation on others, or watching pain or humiliation inflicted on others.
- Deliberate or wanton cruelty, either mental or physical, to other people, or to animals, regardless of whether for (sexual) gratification.
- Synonyms:
- sadisticness
sadism meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
sadism in Hindi
- psychology: the enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation
- परपीड़न parpīṛan
- sexual gratification from inflicting pain or humiliation, or watching it inflicted
- परपीड़न रति parpīṛan rati, परपीड़न कामुकता parpīṛan kāmuktā
sadism in Tamil
- துன்புறுத்து வேட்கை, பிறர் துன்பத்தில் இன்பம், சாடிசம், துன்பூட்டுவேட்கை, கொடுமையால் பாலுறவு இன்பம் கொள்வோர், தாக்கின்பம்
sadism in Urdu
- ظلم پسندی
sadism in Malayalam
- sadism
- സാഡിയം sāḍiyaṁ
- sadism, no humanity or mercy
- കണ്ണിൽ ചോരയില്ലായ്മ kaṇṇil cōrayillāyma
More languagesFewer languages
- sadism in Arabic
- سادية
- sadism in Malay
- kesadisan, sadisme
- sadism in Indonesian
- sadisme
- sadism in Persian
- سادیسم sâdism, دگر آزاری degar âzâri
- sadism in Vietnamese
- bạo dâm, ác dâm
Synonyms of sadism
Forms of sadism
| plural | sadisms |
|---|
Origin of sadism
From French sadisme and German Sadismus. Named after the Marquis de Sade, famed for his libertine writings depicting the pleasure of inflicting pain to others. The word for "sadism" (sadisme) was coined or acknowledged in the 1834 posthumous reprint of French lexicographer Boiste's Dictionnaire universel de la langue française; it is reused along with "sadist" (sadique) in 1862 by French critic Sainte-Beuve in his commentary of Flaubert's novel Salammbô; it is reused (possibly independently) in 1886 by Austrian psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing in Psychopathia Sexualis which popularized it; it is directly reused in 1905 by Freud in Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality which definitively established the word.
Words formed from sadism
Questions about sadism
- What does sadism mean?
- Sadism means the enjoyment of inflicting pain or humiliation without pity.
- What is sadism in Hindi?
- Sadism in Hindi is परपीड़न (parpīṛan), परपीड़न रति (parpīṛan rati), परपीड़न कामुकता (parpīṛan kāmuktā). See Sadism meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sadism?
- Sadism is a noun.
- How do you pronounce sadism?
- Sadism is pronounced /ˈseɪdɪzəm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sadism?
- The plural of sadism is sadisms.
Words near sadism in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sadism (page history and authors); sadism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sadism (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); കണ്ണിൽ ചോരയില്ലായ്മ (Malayalam) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sadism.wav.
Cite this entry: “sadism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sadism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.