pedophilia

• paedophilia (British)
• pædophilia (British, dated)

An adaptation of the German Pädophilie, bringing its spelling into conformity with pedo- +‎ -philia. Compare the Byzantine Greek παιδοφιλία (paidophilía, “love of children”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpiː.dəˈfɪ.li.ə/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌpe.dəˈfɪ.li.ə/

  Rhymes: -ɪliə

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɛ.dəˈfi.li.ə/
• Hyphenation: ped‧o‧phil‧i‧a

pedophilia (countable and uncountable, plural pedophilias)

1. Sexual attraction to children by adults.

   Synonyms: childlove (euphemistic), pederosis

   Antonyms: teleiophilia, pedophobia

   Coordinate terms: hebephilia, ephebophilia, korephilia, teleiophilia

   Hypernym: paraphilia

   • 2007, Margaret Mary Wright, Judicial decision making in child sexual abuse cases, page 122:

     As noted earlier, pedophilia was cited as both an aggravating and a mitigating circumstance by trial judges, as was the absence of pedophilia.

   • 2009, Ann Kring, Sheri Johnson, Gerald C. Davison, Abnormal Psychology:

     Sometimes a man with pedophilia is content to stroke the child's hair, but he may also manipulate the child's genitalia, [...]

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:pedophilia.
2. Sexual activity between adults and children.
   • 1998, Kaufman, Andrew L., Cardozo, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 25:

     Fifteen months later, a committee of the congregation found that he had sexually abused several boys within the congregation. […] The fact that Alger committed pedophilia at the age of thirty-four casts a shadow over his subsequent yearning for relationships with boys and young men, but there is no evidence of any later misconduct.

   • 2005, Carol Weiss Lewis, Stuart Gilman, The ethics challenge in public service: a problem-solving guide, 2 edition, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, →ISBN, page 88:

     Entire books have been written about the role of scandal in US politics (Garment, 1992). Offenses include smoking marijuana, hiring illegal aliens, plagiarizing, sexually harassing others, engaging in pedophilia, […]

   • 2007, Oppenheimer, Todd, “Read All about It -- but Where, Exactly?”, in SFGate‎, Hearst Communications:

     It's quite another (a bad idea) to expect amateurs to figure out who is telling the truth about Iraq, or which priests have committed pedophilia.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:pedophilia.

• Many psychologists recommend against using the term pedophilia to denote sexual activities with children, because not all people with a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children (i.e., pedophilia) commit such acts, and child molesters often lack a strong sexual interest in prepubescent children.[1][2] Furthermore, psychological texts define pedophilia as a primary or exclusive attraction towards specifically prepubescent children;[3] primary attraction towards pubescent children is known as hebephilia and towards post-pubescent adolescents as ephebophilia. See Wikipedia for more information.

• (psychiatry): pedophilic disorder (“a clinical diagnostic classification”) (American Psychiatric Association)

• pedophile