topophilia

T1O1P3O1P3H4I1L1I1A1
/ˌtɒpəˈfɪliə/

noun

A strong sense of place, often combined with a sense of cultural identity.

“What I feel towards my grandmother's house could be described as topophilia.”

Scrabble 17
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Meanings

nountopophilia (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA strong sense of place, often combined with a sense of cultural identity.

    What I feel towards my grandmother's house could be described as topophilia.

    1 more example

    Topophilia might not be associated with your childhood home, however. For me, all synesthetic tendencies take me not to Seattle but to Barcelona, the city where I lived in my 20s, where I got married, and the only place I have returned to year after year (except for 2020, due to the pandemic).

    2021 January 14, Arthur C. Brooks, “Find the Place You Love. Then Move There.”, in The Atlantic

Origin

From Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “place”) + -philia. Coined by British-American poet W. H. Auden in 1947, used by French phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard (1958), and made popular by Chinese-American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan in his essay and book Topophilia (1961 and 1974).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Greek τοποφιλία
  • τοποφιλία (topofilía)Translations
Italian topofilia
  • topofiliaTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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