pansexualism

P3A1N1S1E1X8U1A1L1I1S1M3

noun

The psychological theory that all human activity (mental and physical) is based on sexuality.

Scrabble 23

Meanings

nounpansexualism (uncountable)
  1. historicaluncountablehuman sciencesThe psychological theory that all human activity (mental and physical) is based on sexuality.

    [W]e are positing that theoretical pansexualism is but the reflection of a real pansexualism, that is, of a movement by which sexuality reinvests the entirety of human activities. Sexuality is not everything, but it is everywhere.

    2017, Christopher Christian, Morris N. Eagle, David L Wolitzky, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Conflict, Routledge, →ISBN
    1 more example

    And so we are back at pansexualism. It cannot, however, be too often insisted that, though Freud heavily emphasized the element of sexuality in human nature, he utterly rejected pansexualism, which he regarded as a travesty of his theory; and on many occasions he explicitly and energetically denied the equation of all instinctual life with sexuality.

    1981, Richard Wollheim, Sigmund Freud, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 114
  2. derogatoryrareuncountablePansexuality.
    1 more example

    9.10 Polysexuality and Pansexualism. The prefixes pan and poly originate from ancient Greek meaning all and many, respectively. A person identified as pansexual is gender blind. That is, such people can engage in sexual acts with people having any gender [...]. Polysexuality is thus a subset of pansexuality.

    2015, Amoakoh Gyasi-Agyei, Three Stages of Salvation: Heavenly-Oriented or Hell-Bound?: Foundations of Christian Theology, Partridge Publishing, →ISBN

Origin

Attested since 1917 (a few years earlier than pansexual, which see for more).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pansexualism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pansexualism

MLA

“pansexualism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pansexualism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pansexualism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pansexualism.

Source: pansexualism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.