What does “topophilia” mean?
Appreciating The Places We Love Before They’re Gone
B2 English listening practice · Canadian English · Picked for people who know more
Standing where his dad’s childhood farm once stood, this speaker names a feeling most of us never had a word for: «the love we feel for places… it’s actually been given its own word. Topophilia.» Topophilia means a strong love of, or emotional bond with, a particular place, your hometown, a bedroom, a favorite bookstore.
It joins Greek topos (“place”) with philia (“love”), the same philia in “Anglophile.” The talk’s twist is that English has no matching word for losing a place, so it borrows the language of grief instead. A rare, lovely word for something everyone feels but rarely says out loud.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this B2 English listening practice video?
How common in written English
How common in spoken English
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than B2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸English TED-style talks on memory, home, and belonging.
- ▸In conversations about hometowns and the places that shaped you.
- ▸English vocabulary content on unusual words for everyday feelings.
- ▸Writing on grief, nostalgia, and the places we lose.