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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.

Many autistic people also have alexithymia, a trait that makes it exceptionally difficult to identify and describe emotions, and have been stymied by questions intended to assess their internal state.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026

The researchers also examined the influence of alexithymia -- a 'sub-clinical' condition commonly found in autism that involves difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions.

From Science Daily • Jan. 19, 2026

Well, this is another thing I can identify with, and it's called alexithymia.

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

The higher your alexithymia score, the more trouble you have interpreting emotions and things like that.

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