pyrophilia

P3Y4R1O1P3H4I1L1I1A1

noun

A paraphilia in which gratification is derived from fire and fire-starting activity.

OriginAncient Greek φῐλῐ́ᾱ (phĭlĭ́ā) ← Proto-Indo-European *bʰil-o-s ← English pyro- →
Scrabble 20
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounpyrophilia (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA paraphilia in which gratification is derived from fire and fire-starting activity.

    The woebegone children have their aspirations slowly snuffed. Grace’s artistic dreams (of animation, of course) are punctured by her isolated existence; Gilbert’s pyrophilia is smothered by religious extremism.

    2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club, archived from the original on 22 Aug 2025

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*péh₂wr̥
  2. Proto-Hellenic*pāwər
  3. Ancient Greekπῦρ (pûr)
  4. Latinpyr
  5. Englishpyro-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*bʰil-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*bʰil-o-s
  8. Ancient Greekφῐ́λος (phĭ́los)
  9. Ancient Greekφῐλῐ́ᾱ (phĭlĭ́ā)
  10. Englishpyrophilia

From pyro- + -philia.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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