Other forms: pedophiles
A pedophile is an adult sexually drawn to children. A convicted pedophile, pedophile ring, the word pedophile.
British spelling is paedophile. Clinically the word names an attraction, and the crime is child sexual abuse — the two are treated separately in medicine and identically in ordinary speech. Press and police increasingly prefer child abuser, which names the act.
1nounpedophileAn adult sexually drawn to children.
“The pedophile was jailed and banned from working with children for life.”
pedophile is a person.
Also accepted in games: paedophile
From Greek pais, a child, plus philos, loving, coined in medical writing in the nineteenth century.
Ancient Greek
παιδοφῐ́λης
English, today
pedophile
From pedo- + -phile. From pedo- + -phile, after Ancient Greek παιδοφῐ́λης (from παῖς + φιλέω).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA