Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sudden outburst of emotion or action: a paroxysm of laughter.
- n. A sudden attack, recurrence, or intensification of a disease.
- n. A spasm or fit; a convulsion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In medicine, a fit of any disease; periodical exacerbation of a disease.
- n. Hence Any sudden and violent action; spasmodic affection or action; convulsion; fit.
- n. Figuratively, a quarrel.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The fit, attack, or exacerbation, of a disease that occurs at intervals, or has decided remissions or intermissions.
- n. Any sudden and violent emotion; spasmodic passion or action; a convulsion; a fit.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sudden uncontrollable attack
Etymologies
- Middle English paroxism, periodic attack of a disease, from Medieval Latin paroxysmus, from Greek paroxusmos, from paroxūnein, to stimulate, irritate : para-, intensive pref.; see para-1 + oxūnein, to goad, sharpen (from oxus, sharp; see ak- in Indo-European roots).
Examples
“Her innards were in paroxysm, violently expelling what they no longer recognized as food.”
“The Greek word is the root of the English word paroxysm, which in medicine can stand for a seizure.”
“That is the basic joke of this very funny play: we modern, knowing libertines, entirely familiar with orgasms, watching repressed Victorians clinically discussing the heretofore unknown phenomenon they term a paroxysm, all thanks to Mr. Edison’s wondrous new discovery, electricity.”
“To be sure I had passed through what I may call a paroxysm of Alexander Smith, a poet deeply unknown to the present generation, but then acclaimed immortal by all the critics, and put with Shakespeare, who must be a good deal astonished from time to time in his Elysian quiet by the companionship thrust upon him.”
“Saul had what would now be called a paroxysm of insanity.”
“(Maria Dizzia) for "hysteria" by inducing a "paroxysm" - what we would call an orgasm nowadays.”
“None of the characters is particularly sympathetic, including the wife of the doctor performing the electronic massage under the sheet that induces a 'paroxysm' in the patient, and paroxysms of laughter from (by the sound of it) men in the audience.”
“Furex was a strange creature, a Limousin stonemason who worked steadily all the week and drank himself into a kind of paroxysm on”
“Under such media the disease, par excellence, of the Gaboon is the paroxysm which is variously called Coast, African, Guinea, and”
“Bonaparte's, but, according to others, engaged by Madame Bonaparte to perform the part she did demanded, upon her knees, in a kind of paroxysm of joy, the happiness of embracing him, in doing which she fainted, or pretended to faint away, and a pension of three thousand livres -- was settled on her for her affection.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘paroxysm’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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Words to describe behavior
aberrant, hubris, calumny, sequester, ebullient, malfeasance, salubrious, foible, mercurial, laconic, fugacity, recalcitrant and 7 more...
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Words with unusual spellings or pronunciations
Herein are listed words with oddball spellings and words whose pronunciation does not reflect the spelling.
eleemosynary, Wednesday, colonel, posslq, zaqqum, qwerty, cinquefoil, qibla(h), minuscule, Cholmondeley, polyphloisboian, ptisan and 67 more...
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Literary critical terms
cathexis, catachresis, polyvocal, alterity, liminality, liminal, limn, erasure, metonymic, intertextual, intrapoetic, contradistinction and 66 more...
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Ends in "-sm" but isn't an "ism"
pleonasm, prism, schism, orgasm, spasm, iconoclasm, chasm, enthusiasm, phantasm, ectoplasm, cytoplasm, aneurysm and 55 more...
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Useful and scientificlike words
inchoate, referendum, senescence, fugacity, protoplasmic, paroxysm, agglomerate, ebullient
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New words for 2012
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GRE-Hard-Words
Hard words that is causing me problem to remember.
Louises The weeks of passivity caught up with me and yanked me to my feet in a contained paroxysm of self-disgust. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan. Mar 3, 2012
wackyvorlon renumeratedfrog, your quote amuses me greatly. Sep 24, 2008
renumeratedfrog "Her sudden paroxysm took me completely by surprise and trapped me in a tangle of her cramped muscles, unable to pull out." Aug 19, 2008
brtom "(Stamps her jingling spurs in a sudden paroxysm of sudden fury.)"
Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Feb 8, 2007