PEDOPHILIA

pedophilia, paedophilia

(noun) a sexual attraction to children

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

pedophilia (countable and uncountable, plural pedophilias) (American spelling)

Sexual attraction to children by adults.

Synonyms: childlove (euphemistic), pederosis

Antonyms: teleiophilia, pedophobia

Coordinate terms: hebephilia, ephebophilia, korephilia, teleiophilia

Hypernym: paraphilia

Sexual activity between adults and children.

Usage notes

• 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. Furthermore, psychological texts define pedophilia as a primary or exclusive attraction towards specifically prepubescent children; primary attraction towards pubescent children is known as hebephilia and towards post-pubescent adolescents as ephebophilia. See Wikipedia for more information.