kleptomania
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of kleptomania
1820–30; klepto- (combining form of Greek kléptēs thief ) + -mania
Explanation
Kleptomania is an addiction to stealing. People with kleptomania can’t help but steal stuff, whether they need it or not. The word kleptomania comes from the Greek word kleptes for "thief" and mania for “madness.” Pyromania makes people want to light everything on fire, and kleptomania makes people want to steal all the time. People who have kleptomania — kleptomaniacs — are crazy about stealing. Rich people can have kleptomania, which shows their stealing isn't for economic reasons. When you have kleptomania, the rush of stealing is similar to the rush of other addictions.
Vocabulary lists containing kleptomania
Psychological Conditions and Disorders
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Psychology
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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.
It developed in ancient Egypt and Greece with the belief that a uterus wandering throughout the body could account for any number of disorders: kleptomania, epilepsy, depression, etc.
From Slate ● Nov. 4, 2019
And some feel punishment for minor property offenses is insufficient to break shoplifters of their kleptomania impulses before they become a habit.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 13, 2017
When I posted the article to my social spheres, my creative friends in the ad world lit up with other egregious examples that have me wondering: does advertising have a kleptomania problem?
From Forbes ● Feb. 12, 2015
Shumpert had heard about it, though, from Walker, the team’s assistant coach and a known practitioner of on-court kleptomania as a young player in the mid-1980s.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2013
Is it not hard that the privileges of kleptomania should be confined to the rich?
From The Vicar's Daughter by George MacDonald
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
