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alexithymia

American

[ey-lek-suh-thahy-mee-uh] / ˌeɪ lɛk səˈθaɪ mi ə /

noun

Psychiatry.

difficulty in experiencing, expressing, and describing emotional responses.

Etymology

Origin of alexithymia

a- ⁶ + Greek léxi ( s ) speech ( alexia ) + -thymia

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

People with higher levels of alexithymia showed less clearly defined facial expressions for anger and happiness, which made those emotions appear more ambiguous.

From Science Daily • Jan. 19, 2026

Partners like Isaac have been edging toward a clinical diagnosis: alexithymia, or the inability to describe your emotions.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2025

The 22-year-old, from Newmarket, Suffolk, also discovered she experiences alexithymia, meaning she cannot identify emotions.

From BBC • Jan. 22, 2023

His study, he added, is the first "to show that a difficulty recognizing moving, rather than still, angry expressions is associated with autism, and not alexithymia."

From Salon • Jun. 6, 2021

“Have you heard the term alexithymia before?” he asked.

From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023