mania-, -mania, -maniac, -maniacal, -manic, -manically, -maniacally
(Greek: a specific mental disorder or obsessive preoccupation with something; madness, frenzy; obsession, or abnormal desire for or with something or someone; also, an excessive enthusiasm or fondness for something that is not safe or advantageous)
1. Insanity characterized by an impulse to set things on fire; a compulsion for incendiarism: A man was running through the forest and he seemed to be showing his pyromania because he was seen dropping lighted matches on the dry leaves.
2. An irrational desire to set destructive fires and to watch things burn up: The arsonist was accused of being possessed with pyromania again because she was known to have ignited buildings in the past and just stand nearby to see the flaming structures go up in smoke and she was seen in the vicinity of this new conflagration as she stood across the street from the building as it was being demolished.
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2. An irrational desire to set destructive fires and to watch things burn up: The arsonist was accused of being possessed with pyromania again because she was known to have ignited buildings in the past and just stand nearby to see the flaming structures go up in smoke and she was seen in the vicinity of this new conflagration as she stood across the street from the building as it was being demolished.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's illustrations.
A person who has an uncontrollable impulse, or urge, to start fires: The judge sentenced Sam, who was identified as a pyromaniac, to house arrest with a surveillance bracelet to track and restrict his activities in case he were to have a compulsion to ignite anything.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more Mickey Bach illustrations.
pyromaniacal (adjective), more pyromaniacal, most pyromaniacal
A reference to a monomania or insanity that someone has for setting and watching fires: "There are some pyromaniacal people who have a strong desire to start fires and watch things burn."
"Pyromaniacal fires can be very destructive and even cause deaths for those who are in a building that a pyromaniac has purposely set on fire."
There's nothing consistent about human behavior except its tendency to drift towards evil.
rhinotillexomania
Said to be an incorrect-spelling version which is being used in some medical-psychiatric journals because exo is redundant since the Greek tillesthai already means, “to pull out” (based on an older trichotillomania reference).
rhinotillomania
Compulsive nose-picking as a common activity among adolescents.
rhizomania
An abnormal development of roots.
Russomania
An excessive desire for Russian culture and related objects.
satyromania
1. An abnormal, obsessive, uncontrollable, and insatiable sexual desire by men; usually a sexual lust for women.
2. A passion or excessive desire for sex by a male; also called satyriasis.
2. A passion or excessive desire for sex by a male; also called satyriasis.
schizomania
1. A combination of a manic or major depressive syndrome.
2. A mixture of schizophrenia and manic symptoms.
2. A mixture of schizophrenia and manic symptoms.
scribbleomania, scribblemania
1. A craze or mania for scribbling.
2. A craze or abnormal desire for writing often and quickly.
2. A craze or abnormal desire for writing often and quickly.
scribomania
1. An obsessive zeal for writing quickly and very often.
2. Sometimes in its more psychotic condition, it refers to writing a long succession of unconnected words.
3. Pressured writing or a compulsive need to write, often without regard to the worth of what is being written; graphomania.
2. Sometimes in its more psychotic condition, it refers to writing a long succession of unconnected words.
3. Pressured writing or a compulsive need to write, often without regard to the worth of what is being written; graphomania.
sebastomania
Religious psychosis.
selenomania
Maniacal symptoms induced by moonlight.
siderodromomania
An intense fascination with railroad travel.
sideromania
An obsession with the heavens and what comes from them: such as, meteors and other elements.
You can find self-scoring quizzes over many of the words in this subject area by going to this Compulsive Behavior page.
Cross references of word families that are related directly, or indirectly, to: "anger, angry; rage, wrath, fury; rave": fur-, furi-; ira-; lysso-; rab-, rav-.
