What does necrophilia mean?
Necrophilia is a clinical term for a sexual attraction to corpses or for a paraphilia involving sexual interest in dead bodies. In more specialized or historical use, it can also mean an abnormal fascination with death and the dead, although that broader application requires care because artistic, scholarly, or symbolic engagement with mortality is not necessarily pathological. The word is often encountered in medical, legal, and psychological writing, where it is used to describe a condition or pattern of behavior rather than as a casual label for someone who is interested in death. Its significance lies in its specificity: it distinguishes a sexual response to corpses from ordinary mourning, cultural practices surrounding death, and the separate botanical phenomenon of necrophily, which refers to organisms that favor decaying material. The term should therefore be used carefully, without stigmatizing people solely for contemplating mortality.
nounNecrophilia is a sexual attraction to corpses or a sexual interest in corpses and corpse-like imagery. It is also used more broadly for abnormal fascination with the dead, though that broader use can include historical, artistic, or scientific interests rather than sexual ones.
- A sexual attraction to corpses, or a paraphilia involving sexual interest in dead bodies.
- Less commonly, a broader abnormal fascination with corpses and mortality.
"The condition was treated as a rare paraphilia and discussed sensitively in a clinical setting."
"The report examined the man's necrophilia and considered how best to provide safe and nonjudgmental care."
"The phrase was used critically in a discussion of the filmmaker's necrophilia, meaning an intense and disturbing fascination with death."
The regular plural is rare and is chiefly used when referring to separate cases, conditions, or acts.
"The study compared reported cases of necrophilia with other rare paraphilias."
A word for a sexual fascination with the dead also lives on in botany, where its cousin necrophily describes plants that thrive among decaying matter.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of necrophilia
The word was formed in the 19th century from Greek nékros, meaning “dead” or “corpse,” and phílos, meaning “loving” or “fond of.” The same components occur in necrophile and necrophilous, while the botanical term necrophily uses the Greek-derived elements in a nonsexual botanical sense.
Related word forms
How necrophilia is actually used
The term is clinical and sensitive. In modern usage it most often refers to a sexual paraphilia, but dictionaries also record the broader sense of an abnormal attraction to corpses; historical, artistic, or scientific interest in death should not automatically be characterized this way.
Easily confused with necrophilia
Necrophilia normally denotes a sexual attraction to corpses, whereas necrophily is the botanical term for thriving on or favoring dead organic matter.
Necrophobia is an intense fear of corpses or death, the opposite emotional orientation to the fascination expressed by necrophilia.