Word.ws English Dictionary

wendigo psychosis

Syllables: wen·di·go psych·o·sisUK/ˈwɛndɪɡəʊ saɪˈkəʊsɪs/US/ˈwɛndiɡoʊ saɪˈkoʊsɪs/

wendigo psychosis noun: a psychological condition specific to some Native American groups, in which a person in fever-induced delusions believes that they are possessed by a cannibalistic wendigo spirit, or in which members of the groups hysterically believe a person to be so possessed.

Noun

wendigo psychosis (uncountable)

  1. A psychological condition specific to some Native American groups, in which a person in fever-induced delusions believes that they are possessed by a cannibalistic wendigo spirit, or in which members of the groups hysterically believe a person to be so possessed.
    • "Windigo psychosis" has been the most celebrated culture trait of the Northern Algonkian peoples for almost half a century. […] The conclusion reached is that, although aspects of the windigo belief complex may have been "components in some individuals' psychological dysfunction" (Preston 1980...1982 August, Lou Marano, “Windigo Psychosis: The Anatomy of an Emic–Etic Confusion”, in Current Anthropology, volume 23, number 4, →JSTOR, abstract, page 385; reprinted in Ronald C. Simons and...

Questions about wendigo psychosis

What does wendigo psychosis mean?
Wendigo psychosis means a psychological condition specific to some Native American groups, in which a person in fever-induced delusions believes that they are possessed by a cannibalistic wendigo spirit, or in which members of the groups hysterically believe a person to be so possessed.
What part of speech is wendigo psychosis?
Wendigo psychosis is a noun.
How do you pronounce wendigo psychosis?
Wendigo psychosis is pronounced /ˈwɛndɪɡəʊ saɪˈkəʊsɪs/ (UK).

Words near wendigo psychosis in the dictionary

  1. Wendi
  2. Wendic
  3. wendies
  4. Wendig
  5. wendigo
  6. wendigo psychosis
  7. wendigoes
  8. wendigos
  9. wending
  10. wendings
  11. Wendish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wendigo psychosis (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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