Meanings
- uncountablehuman sciencesA form of obsessive-compulsive disorder characterized by obsessive fixation on matters of morality.
Someone with moral OCD may feel like he did something wrong in the absence of evidence that this was true.
2023, Leslie J. Shapiro, When Religion and Morals Become OCD: Understanding and Treating Scrupulosity, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 32 more examples
When Walter first asked me several years ago, not long after we'd met, whether I'd ever heard of “moral OCD,” I imagined moral OCD in exactly the naive way that many people think of OCD more generally, as being overly concerned with something...
2019, Jesse S. Summers and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Clean Hands?: Philosophical Lessons from Scrupulosity, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page ixHowever, this isn’t the case for people who suffer from a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder known as moral scrupulosity or moral OCD.
2026 May 11, Jillian Wilson, “Constantly Questioning Whether You’re A ‘Bad’ Person? Experts Say ‘Moral OCD’ May Explain Why”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2026Synonyms: scrupulosity
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA form of obsessive-compulsive disorder characterized by obsessive fixation on matters of morality.
Cite this entry
moral OCD. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20OCD
“moral OCD.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20OCD. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “moral OCD,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/moral%20OCD.
Source: moral OCD on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.