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Stockholm syndrome

Stockholm syndrome noun: a psychological condition in which a hostage emotionally bonds to their captor.

Noun

Stockholm syndrome (uncountable)

  1. A psychological condition in which a hostage emotionally bonds to their captor.
    • You're suffering from what humans call Stockholm Syndrome: you have bonded with your captors.2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 259
    • Natascha Kampusch, the 18 year old Austrian woman who escaped from her kidnapper last week after eight years in captivity,[…] is thought to be suffering from an extreme version of Stockholm syndrome, in which victims begin to associate and sympathise with their attackers.2006 May 28, Cape Times
    Synonyms:
    capture-bonding, Helsinki syndrome

Verb

Stockholm syndrome (third-person singular simple present Stockholm syndromes, present participle Stockholm syndroming, simple past and past participle Stockholm syndromed)

  1. (informal, transitive) To cause someone to become affected by Stockholm syndrome.
    • The girls, it turns out, found the experience oddly positive, and not because they were brainwashed or Stockholm syndromed.2015 July 17, Sarah Lyall, “Review: In 'Pretty Is,' Grown Friends Recall Being Kidnapped”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
    • Eventually, you Stockholm Syndromed yourself into believing that what happened to the Bills mattered to your life. Off the top of my head, I can still list more members of the 1990-93 Super Bowl-averse Bills than kids in my Grade 8 class.2021 January 17, Cathal Kelly, “The curious case of all the Bills fans who are not from Buffalo”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, O.N.: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...

Stockholm syndrome meaning in Tamil and Thai

Stockholm syndrome in Tamil

சுடாக்ஹோம் கூட்டறிகுறி, ஸ்டாக்ஹோம் கூட்டறிகுறி

Stockholm syndrome in Thai

psychological condition
สต็อกโฮล์มซินโดรม sà-dtók-hoom-sin-droom

Synonyms of Stockholm syndrome

Forms of Stockholm syndrome

third-person singular presentStockholm syndromes
present participleStockholm syndroming
past participleStockholm syndromed
pastStockholm syndromed

Origin of Stockholm syndrome

Calque of Swedish Norrmalmstorgssyndrom. Named after the robbery of Kreditbanken at the Norrmalmstorg square in Stockholm, Sweden, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. Originally, this term was directly translated from Swedish Norrmalmstorgssyndromet as the Norrmalmstorg syndrome, but later Norrmalmstorg was replaced with Stockholm, a word far more commonly known outside Sweden.

Questions about Stockholm syndrome

What does Stockholm syndrome mean?
Stockholm syndrome means a psychological condition in which a hostage emotionally bonds to their captor.
What is Stockholm syndrome in Tamil?
Stockholm syndrome in Tamil is சுடாக்ஹோம் கூட்டறிகுறி, ஸ்டாக்ஹோம் கூட்டறிகுறி. See Stockholm syndrome meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is Stockholm syndrome?
Stockholm syndrome can be a noun or a verb.

Words near Stockholm syndrome in the dictionary

  1. stockholders
  2. stockholding
  3. stockholdings
  4. Stockholm
  5. Stockholm effect
  6. Stockholm syndrome
  7. Stockholm syndromed
  8. Stockholm syndromes
  9. Stockholm syndroming
  10. Stockholm tar
  11. Stockholm tars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Stockholm syndrome (page history and authors); stockholm syndrome (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-au-Stockholm syndrome.ogg.

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