Meaning & use
nymphomania
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnicalmedical
A medical term for an unusually strong or frequent desire for sex in a woman.
Grammar: Uncountable, so it takes a singular verb and no article: 'Nymphomania is...', not 'a nymphomania'.
Patterns
- suffer from nymphomania
- diagnose nymphomania
- treat nymphomania
In older medical writing, nymphomania was listed as a disorder of excessive sexual desire.
The word nymphomania is rarely used by doctors today and is often considered outdated.
Her novel was criticized for using nymphomania as a plot device rather than a real condition.
noununcountableinformaldisapproving
Informal, often mocking talk about a woman being thought to want sex too much.
Grammar: Still uncountable and usually used in a disapproving or joking way about someone, not about yourself.
Patterns
- accuse someone of nymphomania
- joke about nymphomania
The tabloid headline used nymphomania to mock the actress, which many readers found offensive.
He joked about nymphomania at the party, and the room went quiet.
Common combinations
- a diagnosis of nymphomania
- The old chart showed a diagnosis of nymphomania that no modern doctor would accept.
- be labeled with nymphomania
- In the past, women were sometimes labeled with nymphomania for behavior that was simply considered improper.
- the myth of nymphomania
- Her lecture examined the myth of nymphomania in popular film.
- treat someone for nymphomania
- No reputable clinic would now treat someone for nymphomania as a separate illness.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hypersexuality
- The modern, neutral clinical word for very high sexual desire in anyone; use this instead of nymphomania in serious writing.
- promiscuity
- Means having many sexual partners, which is not the same as high desire and carries its own judgmental tone.
- erotomania
- A different psychiatric term about a false belief that someone else is in love with you, so it is not a synonym.
Word family
- nymphomaniac noun
- A woman described this way; now usually offensive and best avoided.
- nymphomaniacal adjective
- Describing behavior of that kind; rare and strongly disapproving.
Commonly confused: nymphomania or nymph? nymphomania or misogyny?
nymphomania vs nymph
A nymph is a spirit of nature in myths or an immature insect; it is not related in meaning to nymphomania.
nymphomania vs misogyny
Misogyny means hatred of women, while nymphomania is a sexual term; the sounds are different but both appear in discussions of sexism.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'nymphomania' in the way a modern medical text would?
Choose one answer.
Modern medicine treats nymphomania as an outdated label, so sentence B fits. A suggests current diagnosis, C is factually wrong, and D wrongly treats it as an infectious disease.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “nymphomania”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.