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echolalia

[ ek-oh-ley-lee-uh ]

noun

  1. Psychiatry. the uncontrollable and immediate repetition of words spoken by another person.
  2. the imitation by a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others, occurring as a natural phase of childhood development.


echolalia

/ ˌɛkəʊˈlælɪk; ˌɛkəʊˈleɪlɪə /

noun

  1. psychiatry the tendency to repeat mechanically words just spoken by another person: can occur in cases of brain damage, mental retardation, and schizophrenia
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Derived Forms

  • echolalic, adjective
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Other Words From

  • ech·o·lal·ic [ek-oh-, lal, -ik, -, ley, -lik], adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of echolalia1

First recorded in 1880–85; echo + -lalia
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Word History and Origins

Origin of echolalia1

C19: from New Latin, from echo + Greek lalia talk, chatter, from lalein to chatter
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Example Sentences

Yewdall, who had limited verbal skills, often repeated words and phrases she heard other people say, a condition called echolalia.

The repetition of speech is called echolalia and is a common sign of autism.

His language is limited to nonsensical word groupings and repeating what is said to him — an echolalia that is a hallmark of autism.

When Leo Kanner, an Austrian-American psychiatrist and physician, first described autism in 1943, he wrote about children with “extreme autistic aloneness,” “delayed echolalia” and an “anxiously obsessive desire for the maintenance of sameness.”

Has there ever been such a deafening storm of political echolalia?

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