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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

Oedipus complex en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈidəpəs ˈkɒmplɛks/
  • /ˈɛdəpəs ˈkɒmplɛks/
  • (US) audio

Etymology

Named after Oedipus in Greek mythology, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.

Meanings

  1. In Freudian theory, the complex of emotions aroused in a child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex.
    • He never palliated his villainy, never helped old ladies across the street to show that he was a sweet kid au fond or prated about his Oedipus complex like the Percy boys who portray heavies today. 1957, S[idney] J[oseph] Perelman, “Cloudland Revisited: Vintage Swine”, in The Road to Miltown: Or, Under the Spreading Atrophy (A Touchstone Book), 1st Touchstone paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, published 1971, →ISBN, page 88:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
Oedipus complexes Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

Oedipal

Relateds

Electra complex

Translations (24)

de Ödipuskomplex (Freudian theory) · mk Едипов комплекс (Freudian theory) · hy էդիպյան բարդույթ (Freudian theory) · sv oidipuskomplex (Freudian theory) · pl kompleks Edypa (Freudian theory) · es complejo de Edipo (Freudian theory) · fr complexe d’Œdipe (Freudian theory) · ca complex d'Èdip (Freudian theory) · tr Ödipal karmaşa (Freudian theory) · yi עדיפּוס קאָמפּלעקס (Freudian theory) · ru эди́пов ко́мплекс (Freudian theory) · eo Edipa konflikto (Freudian theory) · ja エディプスコンプレックス (Freudian theory) · fi oidipuskompleksi (Freudian theory) · da ødipuskompleks (Freudian theory) · de Ödipuskonflikt (Freudian theory) · tr Ödipus kompleksi (Freudian theory) · pt complexo de Édipo (Freudian theory) · cs oidipovský komplex (Freudian theory) · ga coimpléacs Éideapúis (Freudian theory) · cmn 戀母情結 /恋母情结 (Freudian theory) · tr Ödipus karmaşası (Freudian theory) · no ødipuskompleks (Freudian theory) · el Οιδιπόδειο σύμπλεγμα (Freudian theory)