Masochistic or sadistic?
masochistic is an adjective meaning “Deriving (especially sexual) pleasure from abuse, being punished, or dominated”; sadistic is an adjective meaning “Delighting in or feeling pleasure from the pain or humiliation of others”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sadistic is about 4.6 times as common as masochistic.
What is the difference between masochistic and sadistic?
| masochistic | sadistic | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective |
| Meaning | Deriving (especially sexual) pleasure from abuse, being punished, or dominated | Delighting in or feeling pleasure from the pain or humiliation of others Of behaviour which takes pleasure in the pain or humiliation of others |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | /ˌmæ.səˈkɪs.tɪk/ | /səˈdɪstɪk/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | 1.5 times per million words |
Sources: masochistic and sadistic in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of masochistic and sadistic
masochistic
- 1
Deriving (especially sexual) pleasure from abuse, being punished, or dominated
- 2
colloquialslangBehavior of someone who puts up with teasing
sadistic
- 1
Delighting in or feeling pleasure from the pain or humiliation of others
- 2
Of behaviour which takes pleasure in the pain or humiliation of others
- 3
colloquialCausing a high degree of pain or humiliation
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, masochistic or sadistic?
masochistic appears about once in every 3 million words; sadistic 1.5 times per million words.
masochistic about once in every 3 million wordssadistic 1.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).