One-line definition
A masochist derives sexual or emotional pleasure from receiving physical or psychological pain.
Full definition
The masochist feels the pain; the difference is what happens next, as it converts into excitement, satisfaction, or sometimes a sense of achievement. The orientation can be physical (impact, intensity, endurance) or emotional (the ache of humiliation), and tolerance moves with mood, energy, and state, which is why ongoing communication outweighs any fixed limit number.
A masochist may be a sub, a bottom, both, or neither: a power-bottom masochist can crave intensity while submitting to no one.
Boundaries with related terms
- vs. submissive. A sub enjoys obeying, a masochist enjoys pain. A service sub may want no pain at all.
- vs. bottom. Bottom is the receiving position in a scene; masochist is a motivation. A rope bottom in it for sensation may not be a masochist.
- vs. pain slut. The community’s hotter, narrower term for a masochist whose appetite for pain is the headline.
Related terms
- Sadist
- Sadomasochist
- S/M
- Bottom
- Impact Play