Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A lover of books.
  • noun A collector of books.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A lover of books. Sometimes written bibliophil.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A lover of books.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who loves books.
  • noun One who obsessively collects books, not necessarily due to any interest in reading them.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone who loves (and usually collects) books

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1824. From French bibliophile, from Ancient Greek βιβλιο- (biblio-, "of or pertaining to books") + φίλος (philos, "beloved").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word bibliophile.

Examples

  • Reading Spellwright as a bibliophile is a real treat, and the focus on language, reading, writing and understanding as a wizardly trait is something that seems somewhat new, and honestly, something long overdue in the fantasy realm.

    REVIEW: Spellwright by Blake Charlton 2010

  • A bibliophile from a young age she has always had an affinity for the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

    Kelly Melcher | Fandomania 2010

  • ROMANO: I didn't even know the word bibliophile before this.

    CNN Transcript Dec 12, 2005 2005

  • Coppins, however, hearing himself described as a bibliophile, and surmising that a bibliophile must be a person of some importance, permitted himself the luxury of remarking that he was a bibliophile -- a forty-third-degree bibliophile.

    Knowledge is Power 1916

  • In fact, what this episode demonstrates is that everyone should read a little Marx, particularly Rob Port, the self-described "bibliophile" who snapped the picture of the White House library during a tour in order to blog his cheap shot.

    Redskins Insider Podcast -- The Washington Post 2010

  • Some one has said that "to call a bibliophile a bibliomaniac is to conduct

    Book-Lovers, Bibliomaniacs and Book Clubs Henry H. Harper

  • a Jewish historian and scholar — the kind of bibliophile his father Isaac was.

    Schwarz 2 - Criticism - Critical Contexts 2002

  • These may be tough times, but never have they been so filled with bargains for the bibliophile.

    2009 January | NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS 2009

  • For the bibliophile there are essays on small presses, blogs, ‘the book,’ poetry and fiction, along with the regular roundup of book reviews.

    2009 March 20 | NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS 2009

  • These may be tough times, but never have they been so filled with bargains for the bibliophile.

    Bargains for Bibliophiles 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Someone who loves books

    December 22, 2010

  • "someone who abuses new books"

    December 22, 2010

  • There isn't even an agreed upon term for multi-book readers. There are bibliophiles — lovers of books. There are bibliotaphs — hoarders of books, with the intent of keeping the books out of the hands of others. There's even a word for people who like to read in bed — librocubicularist. But no succinct way of summing up the act of reading more than one book at at time.

    But that doesn't mean the internet hasn't tried to come up with a term on their own. I've seen "parallel readers" (recently suggested in a Quora forum). "Polynarritivus," from a Bookstr article last year. And "poly-reader," from a 2010 NPR piece.

    Maddy Foley, How to Read More Than One Book at a Time, According to Reddit Users Who Do It, Bustle (Sept. 6, 2018)

    September 11, 2018