Meaning & use
voyeurism
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Meanings
noununcountablemedicallegal
The habit of getting excitement from secretly watching people who are undressed or being intimate, usually without their knowledge.
Grammar: Uncountable and serious: charged with voyeurism.
Patterns
- accused of voyeurism
- a case of voyeurism
He was charged with voyeurism after hiding a camera in the changing room.
The therapist treats voyeurism as a disorder.
The law now treats voyeurism as a criminal offense.
noununcountabledisapprovingfigurative
An unhealthy or intrusive curiosity about other people's private lives or suffering.
Grammar: Often used figuratively and critically about media or audiences.
Patterns
- the voyeurism of something
Critics accused the show of turning grief into voyeurism.
Social media can encourage a kind of everyday voyeurism.
The documentary was careful to avoid voyeurism.
Common combinations
- charged with voyeurism
- A man was charged with voyeurism last week.
- accused of voyeurism
- The photographer was accused of voyeurism.
- digital voyeurism
- Digital voyeurism is a growing privacy concern.
- media voyeurism
- Critics condemned media voyeurism after the tragedy.
- crime of voyeurism
- The crime of voyeurism carries a prison term.
Synonyms and how they differ
- peeping
- Peeping, as in peeping Tom, is informal and describes the act of spying, while voyeurism is the formal term for the behavior or condition.
- snooping
- Snooping means prying into private matters, usually not sexual, so it is milder than voyeurism.
- prying
- Prying means asking or looking into private affairs, and is less serious than voyeurism.
- scopophilia
- Scopophilia is a technical psychological term for the pleasure of looking, rarely used outside academic writing.
Word family
- voyeur noun
- a person who gets pleasure from secretly watching others
- voyeuristic adjective
- relating to voyeurism
- voyeuristically adverb
- in a voyeuristic way
Commonly confused: voyeurism or exhibitionism?
voyeurism vs exhibitionism
Exhibitionism is the opposite behavior: wanting to be seen by others, while voyeurism is about secretly watching them.
Practice
The tabloid was criticized for turning a family's private grief into public ___.
Choose one answer.
Voyeurism here means intrusive, curious watching of private pain. Journalism is a tempting option but is neutral and would not be the criticism.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “voyeurism”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.