pedophilia
noun
ˌpē-
\
Definition of pedophilia
: sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object specifically : a psychiatric disorder in which an adult has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a prepubescent child
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Other Words from pedophilia
ˌpē-
\
or
pedophilic
\ ˌpe-də-ˈfi-lik ,
ˌpē-
\
adjective
Examples of pedophilia in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Australian state governments are ramping up pressure on the church to report child abuse and are legislating to prosecute priests who maintain that revelations of pedophilia made in the confessional cannot be disclosed. — Rod Mcguirk, chicagotribune.com, "Australian bishop sentenced to year's detention for cover-up," 2 July 2018 Australian state governments are ramping up pressure on the church to report child abuse and are legislating to prosecute priests who maintain that revelations of pedophilia made in the confessional cannot be disclosed. — Rod Mcguirk, USA TODAY, "Australian bishop sentenced to year’s detention for child sex abuse cover-up," 2 July 2018 Spacey came out as gay in a public response to the accusations, igniting outrage that the actor would draw connections between homosexuality and pedophilia — a false argument that was historically used to support persecution of the gay community. — Anna Millard, refinery29.com, "Kevin Spacey Accused Of Sexual Assault By 3 More Men," 4 July 2018 So far, research on pedophilia suggests that there may be key differences in areas of the brain related to impulse control between those who act on or resist pedophilic urges. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "Sex robots with health benefits are a giant tease, experts warn," 5 June 2018 Kincaid, a far-right activist, has linked homosexuality to pedophilia and has promoted conspiracy theories popular with fringe groups about Obama, including questioning if he was born in the United States. — Andrew Kaczynski And Chris Massie, CNN, "John Bolton's chief of staff defended fringe anti-Muslim, far-right activists in online columns," 7 June 2018 The video of the performance, which saw the mother and daughter touching Schwartz's hand and feet and crawling around his body, was captured by a spectator and led to protests claiming the exhibit promotes pedophilia. — Houston Chronicle, "On the go: Pub crawls and Vince Young signs autographs," 3 July 2018 Even worse, Ross, as well as a number of other fans and creators, noticed that ads for the Alliance Defending Freedom—an organization that has linked homosexuality to pedophilia—were running on LGBTQ videos. — Louise Matsakis, WIRED, "YouTube Will Help Creators Make Money With More Than Just Ads," 21 June 2018 Sexbot proponents, meanwhile, make similar claims regarding the potential beneficial treatments for pedophilia. — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, "Sex robots with health benefits are a giant tease, experts warn," 5 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pedophilia.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for pedophilia
pedophilia
noun
ˌped-
\
\
Medical Definition of pedophilia
: sexual perversion in which children are the preferred sexual object
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