Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. See sleepwalking.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of walking about, with the performance of apparently purposive acts, while in a state intermediate between sleep and waking. The sleeping condition is shown by the absence of the usual reaction to sense-impressions, and nsually by the failure to recall what has been done during the somnambulistic period. With many recent writers, however, the word is used, quite independently of any consideration of movements which the somnambulist may or does execute, as nearly synonymous with trance, mesmerization, or hypnotism, and exactly so with somnolism. It is generally considered under the two main conditions of the idiopathic, spontaneous, or self-induced and the artificial or induced. Compare
somnolism . Also called, rarely, noctambulism.
Wiktionary
- n. sleepwalking
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A condition of the nervous system in which an individual during sleep performs actions appropriate to the waking state; a state of sleep in which some of the senses and voluntary powers are partially awake; noctambulism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. walking by a person who is asleep
Etymologies
- From Latin somnus ("sleep") and ambulāre ("to walk"), with the -ism suffix from Ancient Greek -ισμός, through Latin -ismus. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“As some folks take the root parts of the word somnambulism to be literally walking while one sleeps, they miss the historical context for why the word has been misapplied and is now generally accepted to mean something the roots have nothing to do with.”
“Yes, even one year ago a professor of medicine confessed to me, should I pronounce the word somnambulism I'd be ruined.”
“Jon is calling somnambulism hypnosis while others have a wider definition of what hypnosis is.”
Is all hypnosis self-hypnosis? Is all self-hypnosis hypnosis?
“I want to make certain I've got strong imaginative involvement usually characterized as somnambulism the bypass of the critical factor of the conscious mind so I will suggest it.”
“There is also a lighter phase than somnambulism, that is called fascination.”
“The worst phase of his somnambulism was the impending fears and terrible visions to which he was subjected.”
“He had reached that stage which may be called the somnambulism of fear.”
“Sleepwalking, also called somnambulism or noctambulism is a sleep disorder where a person will engage in movements, actions and routines that they would normally do while they're awake.”
“I have been asked about this phenomena in reference to hypnosis and while the technical term for sleep walking is somnambulism which is the name given to a depth of trance, the two are not so directly related.”
“For Schiller poetry was not 'somnambulism', but a very deliberate process; wherefore it was quite natural for him to expect that a season of philosophic study would be good for him.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘somnambulism’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
SCIE - neurology
abducens.....draw..., ablation.....carr..., acetylcholine......., adrenalin.....nea..., afferent.....to c..., agnosia.....no kn..., alar.....wing-like, alexia.....no words, alveus.....canal, amacrine.....no l..., ambidextrous........, ambiguus.....doub... and 701 more...
-
The Encantadas
"I then pictured these three straightforward monsters, century after century, writhing through the shades, grim as blacksmiths; crawling so slowly and ponderously, that not not only did toadstools ...
all-forsaken, plutonian, woe-begone, grim, penal conflagration, spectre-tortoise, death-tick, blacksmith, somnambulism, chanticleer, unshorn, calcined and 1 more...
-
dream words
( randomness, dreams, creativity )
words or phrases related to all things dreamyphantasmagoria, illusion, imagination, slumber, sky, moon, cloud nine, lucid, fantasy, creativity, somnambulism, dreamer and 39 more...
-
Cinnamony Sea Anemones & Co.
Words full of m's and n's are a little-known cure for sadness.
aeschynomenous, monomoy, zamzummim, abdominous, abhominal, abonnement, acetaminophen, acetophenone, adenomyoma, aeronomer, agnominal, albuminimeter and 229 more...
-
somn-
of or relating to sleep
-
All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
tatterdemalion, panopticon, idioglossia, hypnagogue, hypnopomp, defenestration, anacoluthon, scofflaw, affront, edifying, palimpsest, naufrage and 475 more...
-
five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
-
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
-
tree's Words
aphasia, anhedonia, promontory, misandry, amanuensis, asymptote, penultimate, muslin, tundra, calico, kinaesthesia, rutabaga and 209 more...
-
thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
-
hedges's Words
wii, crepuscule, adumbrate, concatenation, sufi, qawwali, furry, riot, mellifluous, conspiracy, etymology, tea cozy and 369 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
-
Favorite Words
quixotic, assonance, palindrome, plebeian, mezzanine, propinquity, etymology, antihero, intrepid, refractions, lawless, sesquipedalian and 237 more...
-
Bedaphors
So
very
sleepyhypnagogic, chronotherapy, clinomania, condorm, librocubicularist, matutolypea, soporific, supine, decubitus, pandiculation, oscitancy, slugabed and 169 more...
-
Words
Words I like.
jejune, eunoia, swallow, spelunk, milquetoast, echolalia, trumble, toothsome, synecdoche, taciturn, kerfuffle, aleatoric and 98 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for somnambulism.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.