-philiac

The combining form -philiac is used like a suffix to indicate the personal noun form of words that use the form -phile, meaning “love or liking,” “unnatural attraction,” or “tendency.”

The form -philiac roughly means “someone with a liking, tendency, or attraction.” It is occasionally used in scientific and everyday terms, especially in pathology.

The form -philiac comes from Greek -philiakos, which roughly means “friend.”

While -philiac doesn’t have any variants, it is related to six other combining forms: -phile, -philia, -philic, -philism, -philous, and -phily. Want to know more? Check out our Words that Use articles for each form.

One example of a medical term that features the form -philiac is hemophiliac, a term for a person with hemophilia, which is a disease in which the blood doesn’t clot correctly, causing excessive bleeding. The word hemophiliac ultimately comes from haemophilia, which uses the equivalent form of -philia in Latin.

The hemo- part of the word means “blood,” from Greek haîma, while -philiac means “someone with a liking, tendency, or attraction.” Hemophiliac literally translates to “someone with a tendency for blood [bleeding].”

What are some words that use the combining form –philiac?

• coprophiliac
• gerontophiliac
• necrophiliac
• nyctophiliac
• pedophiliac

What are some other forms that –philiac may be commonly confused with?

• -phile
• -philic
• -philous
• -phyll

The combining form nycto- means “night.” With this in mind, what is a nyctophiliac?