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phobia
1[ foh-bee-uh ]
noun
- an intense, persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, situation, or person that manifests in physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, rapid heartbeat, or shortness of breath, and that motivates avoidance behavior.
- an aversion toward, dislike of, or disrespect for a thing, idea, person, or group.
-phobia
2- a combining form meaning “fear,” occurring in loanwords from Greek ( hydrophobia ); on this model, used in the names of anxiety disorders that have the general sense “dread of, aversion toward” that specified by the initial element ( agoraphobia ); on the same model, used in words that name hostility toward a thing or idea, or a specific group, with the sense “antipathy toward or dislike of, disrespect or disdain for” the object or people specified by the initial element ( technophobia ; xenophobia ).
-phobia
1combining form
- indicating an extreme abnormal fear of or aversion to
claustrophobia
acrophobia
phobia
2/ ˈfəʊbɪə /
noun
- psychiatry an abnormal intense and irrational fear of a given situation, organism, or object
phobia
- An extreme and often unreasonable fear of some object, concept, situation, or person.
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Derived Forms
- -phobic, combining_form:in_adjective
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of phobia1
Origin of phobia2
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Example Sentences
The idea of “research” settings in our popular culture tap into this phobia.
Contemporary society has gifted us with a phobia potentially as strong as acrophobia or the fear of flying: smartphone anxiety.
The guy who took the cake suffered from a Vagina Dentata phobia, with attendant castration anxiety.
So there you have it: another outbreak fueled by irrational vaccine phobia.
He discusses his strange phobia, what makes him cry, and what he and Gore Vidal have in common.
Maybe he had forced himself to go with her and the power of his lifelong phobia had wiped it from his memory.
No matter how much overlay you pile on top of such a phobia to suppress it, it will continue to haunt you.
Unless the fear of sleeplessness becomes a full grown phobia, no anxiety need be felt.
Nervous breakdowns are increasing as a result of the American worry phobia.
Anton Varcek won't be interested, one way or another; he has what amounts to a pathological phobia about firearms of any sort.
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