Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A paraphilia in which adult sexual gratification is derived from fantasies or acts involving a postpubescent adolescent, often of the same gender.
- noun Love of a man for a male youth, idealized in certain societies such as ancient Greece.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a sexual orientation or preference in which an adult's primary sexual attraction is towards
pubescent orpostpubescent adolescents - noun
philia for anephebe
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term ephebophilia, derived from the Greek word for “youth,” is sometimes used to describe sexual interest in young people in the first stages of puberty.”
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Secondly, "[Jenkins] disapproves of this, but says that restraining it may threaten quite different sex acts with post-pubescents, which he calls ephebophilia (boy-love).
Priests and Boys: An Exchange Hirsch, David 2002
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Thus, it is correctly classified as ephebophilia, attraction to older adolescents; or hebephilia, attraction to pubescent children.
ChronWatch - Articles Selwyn Duke 2010
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Thus, it is correctly classified as ephebophilia, attraction to older adolescents; or hebephilia, attraction to pubescent children.
ChronWatch - Articles Selwyn Duke 2010
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The great majority of cases now before the church involve not pedophilia but "ephebophilia," an attraction to post-pubescent youths.
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The term "ephebophilia" is rarely used in church debates and the press.
GetReligion 2009
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Wills is right, then, to suggest that "ephebophilia" (or its synonym, "hebephilia)" is not a very useful term ” but for the wrong reason.
Priests and Boys: An Exchange Hirsch, David 2002
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"ephebophilia" or perhaps "paraphilia" (I'm not entirely sure which, I've heard both).
Pharyngula 2009
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The Blue Lagoon pics are basically ephebophilia on a plate.
a quiet evening hradzka 2010
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I most certainly am not equating homosexuality with heterosexuality but I am challenging those who equate homosexuality with ephebophilia via the child sex abuse scandal.
tankhughes commented on the word ephebophilia
Feb 2022 Gianmarco Soresi bit about how if you're trying to convince people that it's tough to define predators by saying it's not pedophilia, it's ephebophilia. "technically speaking, R. Kelly is not a pedophile." but "it's very hard to explain the difference... without sounding like a pedophile." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu6C2KL_S9o
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarchAgainstNazis/comments/1owf808/ok_fine_megyn_its_ephebophilia_and_its_still/
November 13, 2025