hedonism

English

WOTD – 2 September 2006, 2 September 2007

Etymology

First attested 1856: from Ancient Greek ἡδονή (hēdonḗ, “pleasure”) +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hĕdənĭzəm, IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdənɪzəm/
• (General American) enPR: hēdənĭzəm, IPA^(key): /ˈhiːdənɪzəm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Hyphenation: he‧don‧ism

Noun

hedonism (usually uncountable, plural hedonisms)

1. (ethics, uncountable) The philosophical belief that happiness, particularly sensual pleasure, is the highest good in life.
   • 2020 April 24, Jeremy M. Davies, “No Sleep till Auschwitz”, in The Baffler‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 September 2020:

     It began with his shrugging off of both family and faith and taking the Amtrak Vermonter out of Penn Station to major in minor hedonism and minor in the major modernists at a hippie college in the great Jewless north.

2. (countable) A general devotion to the pursuit of pleasure.

Synonyms

• Cyrenaicism

Antonyms

• asceticism

Hypernyms

• selfishness

Hyponyms

• Epicureanism (advocating mental pleasures & a need for most typical virtues to avoid pain)

Derived terms

• antihedonism
• psychological hedonism

Related terms

• hedonic
• hedonics
• hedonist
• hedonistic
• hedonistically

Translations

philosophy

• Arabic: مَذْهَب اَللِّذَّة m (maḏhab al-liḏḏa)
• Asturian: hedonismu m
• Belarusian: гедані́зм m (hjedanízm)
• Catalan: hedonisme (ca) m
• Cebuano: hedonismo
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 享樂主義 / 享乐主义 (zh) (xiǎnglèzhǔyì)

• Czech: hédonismus (cs) m, hedonismus (cs) m
• Danish: hedonisme (da) c
• Dutch: hedonisme (nl) n, genotzucht (nl) f or m, epicurisme (nl) n
• Esperanto: hedonismo
• Estonian: hedonism (et)
• Finnish: hedonismi (fi)
• French: hédonisme (fr) m
• Galician: hedonismo m
• Georgian: ჰედონიზმი (ka) (hedonizmi)
• German: Hedonismus (de) m
• Greek: ηδονισμός (el) m (idonismós)

  Ancient Greek: ἡδονισμός m (hēdonismós)

• Hebrew: הֶדוֹנִיזְם (he) m (hedonism)
• Hungarian: hedonizmus (hu)
• Icelandic: hedónismi m
• Irish: héadónachas m
• Italian: edonismo (it) m
• Japanese: 快楽主義 (ja) (かいらくしゅぎ, kairakushugi)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: zewqyarî f, hedonîzm f

• Latin: hēdonismus m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hedonisme m

  Nynorsk: hedonisme (nn) m

• Polish: hedonizm (pl) m
• Portuguese: hedonismo (pt) m
• Romanian: hedonism (ro) n
• Russian: гедони́зм (ru) m (gedonízm)
• Serbo-Croatian: хедонизам m, hedonizam (sh) m
• Spanish: hedonismo (es) m
• Swedish: hedonism (sv) c
• Thai: สุขนิยม (th)
• Turkish: hedonizm (tr), hazcılık (tr)
• Ukrainian: гедоні́зм m (hedonízm)
• Welsh: hedoniaeth f, pleseryddiaeth f

devotion to the pursuit of pleasure

• Cebuano: hedonismo
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 享樂主義 / 享乐主义 (zh) (xiǎnglèzhǔyì)

• Finnish: hedonismi (fi)
• German: Genußsucht (de) f, Genusssucht (de) f
• Hungarian: hedonizmus (hu)
• Plautdietsch: Plezhiasocht f
• Welsh: hedoniaeth f

See also

• debauchery

Further reading

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “hedonism”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “hedonism”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• demonish, monished, Sondheim

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French hédonisme.

Noun

hedonism n (uncountable)

1. hedonism

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	hedonism	hedonismul
genitive-dative	hedonism	hedonismului
vocative	hedonismule

Related terms

• hedonist
• hedonistic

Further reading

• “hedonism”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

Swedish

Noun

hedonism c

1. hedonism (philosophically or more generally)

Declension

Declension of hedonism

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	hedonism	hedonisms
	definite	hedonismen	hedonismens
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

Related terms

• hedonist (“hedonist”)
• hedonistisk (“hedonistic”)

See also

• epikurism (“Epicureanism”)
• eudemonism (“eudaemonism”)

References

• “hedonism”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “hedonism”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “hedonism”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)