DictionaryAI

autism

noun
AW-tiz-uhm/ˈɔːtɪzəm/

3 meanings of autism

Practice

  1. 1
    noununcountable
    A lifelong neurodevelopmental condition, apparent from early childhood and varying widely between people, that affects social communication and is marked by repetitive behaviors, focused interests, and sensory differences.

    The clinic specializes in diagnosing autism in toddlers and preschoolers.

    Many adults with autism describe bright lights and background noise as genuinely overwhelming.

    UsageYou are diagnosed with autism. Many autistic people prefer autistic person to person with autism.

    Note

    A clinical term whose history runs backwards. Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler coined German Autismus, and in his Dementia Praecox (1911) it named something nearer the older withdrawal into fantasy than today's lifelong condition.

  2. 2
    noundateduncountable
    Pathological withdrawal into self-centered fantasy, formerly regarded as a symptom of insanity or schizophrenia.
    Note

    Here the word survives mainly in older psychiatric writing, as the retreat into self-centered fantasy that early clinicians counted among the signs of insanity or schizophrenia. A reader meeting a patient's autism in such a text should take it to mean inward withdrawal of thought, not a developmental condition. The term is now rarely used this way, and the two meanings should never be read as one.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Older psychiatric writing used autism for inward withdrawal into self-centered fantasy, regarded as a symptom of insanity or schizophrenia. en.wiktionary.org
    • The related psychiatric concept remains in use as 'schizophrenic autism'; a 2025 research article uses it in its own analysis. frontiersin.org

Less common meaning

  1. 3
    noun
    Obsessive, inflexible fixation combined with low self-awareness and intense hostility toward criticism or opposition, deployed as a derogatory label.

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Origin

Borrowed from German Autismus, coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (first used in 1907). It comes from Ancient Greek αὐτός (autós, "self") plus the suffix -ισμός (-ismós, "-ism").

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts