The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος phobos, "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g., agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g., hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g., acidophobia), and in medicine to describe hypersensitivity to a stimulus, usually sensory (e.g., photophobia). In common usage, they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject (e.g., homophobia). The suffix is antonymic to -phil-.
For more information on the psychiatric side, including how psychiatry groups phobias such as agoraphobia, social phobia, or simple phobia, see phobia. The following lists include words ending in -phobia, and include fears that have acquired names. In some cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, a notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.[1] In some cases, a word ending in -phobia may have an antonym with the suffix -phil-, e.g., Germanophobe/Germanophile.
Many -phobia lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other. Also, a number of psychiatric websites exist that at the first glance cover a huge number of phobias, but in fact use a standard text to fit any phobia and reuse it for all unusual phobias by merely changing the name. Sometimes it leads to bizarre results, such as suggestions to cure "prostitute phobia".[2] Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines.
An article published in 1897 in the American Journal of Psychology noted, "the absurd tendency to give Greek names to objects feared (which, as Arndt says, would give us such terms as klopsophobia – fear of thieves and triakaidekaphobia [sic] – fear of the number 13 ...)".[3]
Psychological conditions
This section needs more reliable medical references for verification or relies too heavily on primary sources. Please review the contents of the section and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "List of phobias" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(July 2023)
Specialists may prefer to avoid the suffix -phobia and use more descriptive terms such as personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and avoidant personality disorder. Terms should strictly have a Greek prefix, although many are irregularly formed with Latin or even English prefixes. Many use inaccurate or imprecise prefixes, such as aerophobia (fear of air) for fear of flying.
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2014)
fear of water. Distinct from hydrophobia, a scientific property that makes chemicals averse to interaction with water, as well as an archaic name for rabies.
Anatidaephobia – the fictional fear that one is being watched by a duck. The word comes from the name of the family Anatidae, and was used in Gary Larson's The Far Side.[44]
Charlophobia – the fictional fear of any person named Charlotte or Charlie, mentioned in the comedic book A Duck is Watching Me: Strange and Unusual Phobias (2014), by Bernie Hobbs. The phobia was created to mock name bias, a form of discrimination studied by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Chicago.[47]
Keanuphobia – fear of Keanu Reeves, portrayed in the Dean Koontz book, False Memory, where a woman has an irrational fear of Reeves and has to see her psychiatrist, Mark Ahriman, each week, unaware that she only has the fear in the first place because Ahriman implanted it via hypnotic suggestion to amuse himself. He calls her "Keanuphobe" in his head.
Luposlipaphobia – fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor. Coined humorously by cartoonist Gary Larson for his comic The Far Side.
Nihilophobia – fear of nothingness, from Latin nihil and "nothing, none", as described by the Doctor in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Night". Voyager's morale officer and chef Neelix has this condition, having panic attacks while the ship was traversing a dark expanse of space known as the Void. It is also the title of a 2008 album by Neuronium.
^ a bThe A–Z of Fear, a 30 October 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section
^"Content Spammers Help You Overcome Prostitute Phobia". Webpronews.com. 25 August 2005. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
^ a b cCampbell RJ (2009). Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 375–. ISBN978-0-19-534159-1.
^Anonymous (12 September 2021). "Apotemnophobia (Fear of People with Amputations)". Psych Times. Covington, Louisiana. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
^Anonymous (10 November 2018). "What it's like to live with apotemnophobia – an intense fear of amputation". Metro.co.uk. London, England. Associated Press Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
^"This Phobia Causes the Fear of Being Forgotten and Forgetting Others". Health. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
^McKnight P (13 April 2023). "Fear of forgetting, or being forgotten, is an epidemic". Vancouver Sun.
^"Fear of failure (atychiphobia): Symptoms and treatment". medicalnewstoday.com. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
^Gould GM (1910). The Practitioner's Medical Dictionary (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: P. Blackiston's Son & Co. p. 100.
^Akinola D (17 October 2020). "Belonephobia: The Fear of Pins and Needles". a Soothing Health. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
^Yim L (August 2006). "Belonephobia--a fear of needles". Australian Family Physician. 35 (8): 623–624. ISSN 0300-8495. PMID 16894439.
^Chionophobia (Fear of snow), Cleveland Clinic, Accessed:4 November 2024
^Planting T, Koopowitz SM, Stein DJ (19 January 2022). "Coulrophobia: An investigation of clinical features". The South African Journal of Psychiatry. 28: 1653. doi:10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v28i0.1653. PMC8831965. PMID 35169508.
^Frost R (1923). "New Hampshire [poem]". New Hampshire. Standard Ebooks. p. 14. "But his heart failing him, he dropped the axe And ran for shelter quoting Matthew Arnold: '... Remember Birnam Wood! The wood's in flux!' He had a special terror of the flux That showed itself in dendrophobia."
^Schwab G (Winter 2021). "Trees, Fungi, and Humans: A Transspecies Story". CR: The New Centennial Review. 21 (3). Michigan State University Press: 245–267. Years ago, I had a terrifying nightmare. I was back in Konstanz, my German hometown, walking in a beautiful forest adjacent to the lake. Suddenly, the giant trees surrounding me ripped their roots out of the earth and began to run after me, chasing me all the way out of the forest. I ran and ran, fearing for my life. Later I learned that my dream had its roots in an ancient phobia of trees called dendrophobia, a primordial terror linked to a sense that trees are more alive than we think. For those suffering from dendrophobia, trees have a paradoxical mobility that enables them to use their roots to grab humans or even kill them by willfully dropping their branches on them. Dendrophobia, an officially recognized mental illness that may in extreme cases lead to institutionalization, is linked to trees being recognized not simply as living beings but rather as hostile ones, intent on inflicting harm on humans or even killing them.
^"Dystychiphobia (Fear of Accidents): Symptoms & Treatment". Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
^Sue D, Sue DW, Sue DM, Sue S (15 February 2013). Essentials of Understanding Abnormal Behavior. Cengage Learning. pp. 126–. ISBN978-1-285-62475-4.
^Pitchot W (11 September 2014). "Effective treatment of eisoptrophobia with duloxetine: a case report". The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders. 16 (5). doi:10.4088/PCC.14l01636. PMC4321006. PMID 25667801.
^Bullough VL, Bullough B (2014). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 449. ISBN9781135825096.
^Winkler K (January 1957). "[Helminthophobia]". Zeitschrift für Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten. 22 (2): 47–52. PMID 13409951.
^Papakostas YG, Daras MD, Liappas IA, Markianos M (December 2005). "Horse madness (hippomania) and hippophobia" (PDF). History of Psychiatry. 16 (Pt 4 (no 64)): 467–471. doi:10.1177/0957154X05051459. PMID 16482685. S2CID 2721386.
^Dunglison RJ (1895). A dictionary of medical science: containing a full explanation of the various subjects and terms of anatomy, physiology, ... (21st ed.). Lea Brothers & Co.
^"Cockroaches: The insect we're programmed to fear". BBC. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
^Russell J, Lintern F, Gauntlett L (1 September 2016). Cambridge International AS and A Level Psychology Coursebook. Cambridge University Press. p. 144. ISBN9781316605691. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
^Ott J (1976). "Psycho-mycological studies of Amanita–from ancient sacrament to modern phobia". Journal of Psychedelic Drugs. 8: 27–35. doi:10.1080/02791072.1976.10472005.
^"phobo-, phob-, -phobia, -phobias, -phobe, -phobiac, -phobist, -phobic, -phobism, -phobous". Phobo-, phob-, -phobia, -phobias, -phobe, -phobiac, -phobist, -phobic, -phobism, -phobous – Word Information. English-Word Information (wordinfo.info). Retrieved 25 February 2023. phyllophobia… An excessive fear of leaves: Each time Virginia saw the excessive amount of leafage on the ground in the fall, she had phyllophobia because it was the time of year to do the raking which took many days to complete!
^Doran T (September 2002). "Chewproof (review)". Books Ireland. No. 251. Wordwell Books. p. 215. doi:10.2307/20632455. ISBN978-1-902420-54-7. ISSN 0376-6039. JSTOR 20632455. Retrieved 26 February 2023. However it might be useful this autumn to know that phyllophobia is a fear of leaves….
^Robertson JG (2003). An Excess of Phobias and Manias: A Compilation of Anxieties, Obsessions, and Compulsions That Push Many Over the Edge of Sanity. Senior Scribe Publications. p. 146. ISBN978-0-9630919-3-2. Retrieved 26 February 2023. phyllophobia: An excessive fear of leaves.
^Wolfe R (22 October 2016). "Jump in, if you're not phyllophobic". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. ISSN 1060-4332. Phyllophobia, the fear of leaves, might not be as much in the news this autumn as coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. But anywhere that crinkly, dead leaves are, some people are scared of them.
^Roane HS, Ringdahl JE, Falcomata TS, eds. (2015). Clinical and Organizational Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis. Academic Press. p. 461. ISBN978-0-12-420249-8.
^Linder C (29 November 2019). "The 25 Coolest Shipwrecks in the World". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
^"Teratophobia definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
^"Teratophobia (Concept Id: C0522188)". MedGen. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
^Schmid M, Wolf RC, Freudenmann RW, Schönfeldt-Lecuona C (November 2009). "Tomophobia, the phobic fear caused by an invasive medical procedure – an emerging anxiety disorder: a case report". Journal of Medical Case Reports. 3 131. doi:10.1186/1752-1947-3-131. PMC2803803. PMID 20062769.
^Basavaraj KH, Navya MA, Rashmi R (July 2010). "Relevance of psychiatry in dermatology: Present concepts". Indian Journal of Psychiatry. 52 (3): 270–275. doi:10.4103/0019-5545.70992. PMC2990831. PMID 21180416.
^Thomas G (15 October 2012). "Do holes make you queasy or even fearful". The Daily Herald. Arlington, IL. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
^Fischler C (1992). "From lipophilia to lipophobia. Changing attitudes and behaviors towards fat: a socio-historical approach". In Mela DJ (ed.). Dietary fats determinants of preference, selection, and consumption. London, New York: Elsevier Applied Science. pp. 103–115.
^Askegaard S, Ostberg J (2003). "Consumers' Experience of Lipophobia: A Swedish Study". Advances in Consume Research. 30: 161.
^Askegaard S, Jensen AF, Holt DB (1999). "Lipophobia: A transatlantic concept?". Advances in Consume Research. 26 (1): 331–336.
^Arora A, Jha AK, Alat P, Das SS (December 2020). "Understanding coronaphobia". Asian Journal of Psychiatry. 54 102384. doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102384. PMC7474809. PMID 33271693.
^Jenkins J (10 June 2006). "I hate to burst Poway Unified's balloon". U-T San Diego. Archived from the original on 4 November 2010.
^"Fear of Peanut Butter: Why Arachibutyrophobia is a Real Phobia". United We Care. 22 May 2021.
^Schultz C (19 May 1982). "Peanuts Comic Strip". GoComics.com.
^"Name Discrimination Study Finds Lakisha And Jamal Still Less Likely To Get Hired Than Emily And Greg". wbur.org. 18 August 2021. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
^Farmer B (10 January 2008). "Phobia catalogue reveals bizarre list of fears". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. A catalogue of unusual phobias reveals that the fear of long words is known as hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia.
^"The Fourth Dimension". Doctor Who. Season 14. BBC One.
^Lanthaler M, Gütl C (2011). "A Semantic Description Language for RESTful Data Services to Combat Semaphobia". 5th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (IEEE DEST 2011). Proceedings of the 2011 5th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies (DEST). Daejeon, South Korea. pp. 47–53. doi:10.1109/DEST.2011.5936597. ISBN978-1-4577-0871-8. S2CID 14815713.
Further reading
Aldrich C (2 December 2002). The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Trafford Publishing. pp. 224–236. ISBN1-55369-886-X.
For a list of words relating to various phobias not found in wikipedia, see the English terms suffixed with -phobia category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phobias.
The Phobia List
Nursing Degree Guide Archived 2 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine
