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''paroxysm'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

paroxysm - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

paroxysm (countable and uncountable, plural paroxysms)

  • (countable, medicine) A period (especially one of several recurring periods) during the course of an illness when symptoms worsen; a sudden attack of a disease symptom, such as a bout of coughing or a seizure.
    • ✤ Synonyms: (rare) exacervation, fit
    • ✤ Againe; I feare a paroxiſme.1
    • ✤ For, Sir, though Ireland is always combustible, Ireland is not always on fire. We must distinguish between the chronic complaints which are to be attributed to remote causes, and the acute attack which is brought on by recent imprudence. For though there is always a predisposition to disease in that unhappy society, the violent paroxysms come only at intervals.2
    • ✤ His malady proved to be a softening of the spinal marrow: it was incurable; it made rapid progress. […] [A]ll this, and suffering, besides this, at short intervals, paroxysms of nervous agony.3
    • ✤ The slightest effort made the patient cough. He would stand leaning on a stick and holding a hand to his side, and when the paroxysm had passed it left him shaking.4
  • (by extension)
    • (countable) Chiefly followed by of: a sudden outburst of violent activity or feeling; also, the most severe part of an activity or incident; the climax.
      • ✤ Synonyms: high point; see also Thesaurus: apex
      • ✤ [H]ere vve may take occaſion, to mention the miſerable condition of the Iſraelites in Egypt, during vvhich time, vvoefull their ſlavery, if vve conſider, the […] Long continuance thereof, tvvo hundred and odde years in the latitude, and fourſcore (from the birth of Moſes) in the Paroxyſme of their bondage.5
      • ✤ [I]n his Paroxyſms, as he vvalked the Streets, he vvould have his Pockets loaden vvith Stones, to pelt at the Signs.6
      • ✤ If prevented by force, the screams she sometimes uttered in her paroxysms of rage were fearful, and must inevitably be heard.7
      • ✤ Her doubts and terrors reached their paroxysm; and the poor girl, who for many hours had been plunged into stupor, raved and ran hither and thither in hysteric insanity—a piteous sight.8
      • ✤ These chants are taken up, more or less, by the audience; sometimes they flag and die away for want of support, sometimes they are continued till they reach a paroxysm, and then abruptly stop.9
      • ✤ Unable to turn his back on the fanged danger and go on, the bull would be driven into paroxysms of rage.10
      • ✤ There, on the soft sand, a few feet away from our elders, we would sprawl all morning, in a petrified paroxysm of desire, and take advantage of every blessed quirk in space and time to touch each other: […]11
      • ✤ He was capable of mighty paroxysms of righteous indignation, and he was indignant as could be when he learned that a C.I.D. man was in the area looking for him.12
      • ✤ Indeed in his excitement at this breakthrough he inadvertently dug his nails into the nurse’s bottom, a gesture she misinterpreted, so that he had to suffer a paroxysm of breasts and loins in response.13
      • ✤ The Russian soldier left a trail of blood and devastated lives in a last paroxysm of violence only hours before Russian troops began withdrawing.14
    • (countable, archaic) An outburst of a violent argument or disagreement.
      • ✤ But the greateſt contention happening here, vvas that Paroxyſme betvvixt Paul and Barnabas, the one as earneſtly refuſing, as the other deſiring the company of John Mark to goe along vvith them.15
      • ✤ By the vvay, it muſt not be forgotten, that in the very midſt of the Paroxiſme betvvixt[Richard] Hooker and[Walter] Travers, the latter ſtil bare (and none can challenge the other to the contrary) a reverend eſteem of his adverſary.16
      • ✤ [A]n election was at hand, which, it was expected, would throw the whole country into a paroxysm.17
      • ✤ The passions which inflame us, the sophisms which delude us, will not last for ever. The paroxysms of faction have their appointed season.18
    • (countable, chiefly geology) A violent occurrence of a natural phenomenon, such as an earthquake, thunderstorm, or volcanic eruption; specifically (volcanology), the most explosive event during a series of volcanic eruptions.
      • ✤ [T]he Storm had ſeven Paroxyſms or Exacerbations, vvhich the Seamen call Frights of VVeather, […]19
      • ✤ [W]ith paroxiſms of ſtrange diſmay/Th’amazed Heav’ns ſtood ſtill, Earth’s baſis ſhook,/The troubled Ocean roard, the ſtartled Air/In hollovv grones profoundly breath’d its fear.20
    • (uncountable, rare) Disastrous or sudden change.
      • ✤ It is manifest that the species themselves are but transmutations of one or a few primordial types, and that they have been created not by paroxysm, but by evolution.21
      • ✤ Catastrophists argued that most geological change occurred in rare episodes of truly global paroxysm, marked by the “usual suspects” of volcanism, mountain building, earthquakes, and flooding.22

Etymology

From Late Middle English paroxism, paroxisme (“period of worsening of a disease, attack; sudden recurrent fever”),23 from Middle French paroxisme, paroxysme, and Old French peroxime (“period of worsening of a disease; bout of fever or illness”) (modern French paroxysme), and from their etymon Late Latin paroxismus, paroxysmus (“a fit; onset of a disease; violent impulse or sadness”), from Ancient Greek πᾰροξῠσμός (păroxŭsmós, “exasperation, irritation; severe fit of a disease”), from πᾰροξῡ́νω (păroxū́nō, “to irritate, provoke”) (from παρα- (para-, prefix meaning ‘parallel to but separate from or going beyond, beside’) + ὀξῡ́νω (oxū́nō, “to provoke; to sharpen”) (from ὀξῠ́ς (oxŭ́s, “sharp”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡h₂eḱ- (“sharp”))) + -μός (-mós, suffix forming abstract nouns).24 By surface analysis, para- +‎ oxy- +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpæɹəksɪz(ə)m/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈpɛɹəkˌsɪzəm/, /pəˈɹɑk-/
  • Hyphenation: par‧ox‧y‧sm

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1605 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Ben: Ionson His Volpone or The Foxe, [London]: […] [George Eld] for Thomas Thorppe, published 1607, →OCLC, Act III, scene v, signature G3, recto: ↩

  2. 1844 February 19 (date delivered), [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “[Speeches.] A Speech Delivered in the House of Commons on the 19th of February 1844.”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC, page 647: ↩

  3. 1865, Matthew Arnold, “Heinrich Heine”, in Essays in Criticism, London: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 165: ↩

  4. 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XLV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 374–375: ↩

  5. 1650, Thomas Fuller, “The Description of Egypt”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: […] J. F. for John Williams […], →OCLC, book II, paragraph 19, page 84: ↩

  6. 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section XI. A Tale of a Tub.”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, pages 203–204: ↩

  7. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 70: ↩

  8. 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In Which Jos Sedley Takes Flight, and the War Is Brought to a Close”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 283: ↩

  9. 1875, Matthew Arnold, “A Persian Passion Play”, in Essays in Criticism […], 3rd edition, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co. […], →OCLC, page 282: ↩

  10. 1903 July, Jack London, “The Sounding of the Call”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 212: ↩

  11. 1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published August 1958, →OCLC, part 1, page 14: ↩

  12. 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “McWatt”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 61: ↩

  13. 1982 August, John Fowles, Mantissa (A Plume Book), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, published September 1983, →ISBN, pages 32–33: ↩

  14. 2022 December 31, Carlotta Gall, Oleksandr Chubko, “In Bucha, a final rampage served as a coda to a month of atrocities”, in The New York Times ‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 September 2024: ↩

  15. 1650, Thomas Fuller, “[The Generall Description of Judea] The Description of Mount Libanus and the Adjacent Countreys”, in A Pisgah-sight of Palestine and the Confines thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament Acted thereon, London: […] J. F. for John Williams […], →OCLC, book I, paragraph 29, page 13: ↩

  16. 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section VII. To Mr. Hamond Ward, and Mr. Richard Fuller of London Merchants.”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, book IX, page 217: ↩

  17. 1837, Washington Irving, “The Creole Village. A Sketch from a Steamboat.”, in Wolfert’s Roost and Other Papers, […], New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam & Co., […], published 1855, →OCLC, page 48: ↩

  18. 1840 January 29 (date delivered), [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “[Speeches.] A Speech Delivered in the House of Commons on the 29th of January 1840.”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC, page 596: ↩

  19. a. 1692 (date written), Robert Boyle, “Title XV. Of the Motion of the Air, and of Winds.”, in The General History of the Air, […], London: […] Awnsham and John Churchill, […], published 1692, →OCLC, page 85: ↩

  20. 1702, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto VI. The Humiliation. Stanza 192.”, in Charles Beaumont, editor, Psyche, or Love’s Mystery, […], 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] University-Press, for Tho[mas] Bennet, […], →OCLC, page 86, column 1: ↩

  21. 1893, Alfred Williams Momerie, “The Philosophic and Moral Evidence for the Existence of God”, in John Henry Barrows, editor, The World’s Parliament of Religions: An Illustrated and Popular Story of the World’s First Parliament of Religions, Held in Chicago in Connection with the Columbian Exposition of 1893, volume I, Chicago, Ill.: The Parliament Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 271: ↩

  22. 1999 April, Stephen Jay Gould, “[Charles] Lyell ’s Pillars of Wisdom”, in Bruce Stutz, editor, Natural History, volume 108, number 3, New York, N.Y.: American Museum of Natural History, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 33, column 3: ↩

  23. “paroxism, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  24. “paroxysm, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “paroxysm, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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