kleptomaniac
/ˌklɛptəˈmeɪniæk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.84 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
5
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who steals compulsively.
Example Sentences
- "“A kleptomaniac,” I said. “Which means, if the term is not familiar to you, a chap who flits hither and thither pinching everything he can lay his hands on. [...] And if ever a man needed to be constantly under an eye, it's the above kleptomaniac. [...] He pinches things. Everything that isn't nailed down is grist to his mill.”"
- "The dear old room was just as I'd left it, nothing changed, and my first move, of course, was to procure another chair and give the top of the armoire the once-over. It was a set-back to find that the cow-creamer wasn't there. I suppose these kleptomaniacs know a thing or two and don't hide the loot in the obvious place."
- "The last line, adapted from Coleridge, reminds us that we are never such kleptomaniacs as in our juvenilia. We steal from our masters. We steal from our friends, from our enemies even."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek κλέπτω (kléptō, “I steal”) (from Proto-Hellenic *klépt͏̌ō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *klep-) + -maniac.