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View synonyms for hysteria

hysteria

[ hi-ster-ee-uh, -steer- ]

noun

  1. an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.
  2. Psychoanalysis. a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions, and various abnormal effects due to autosuggestion.
  3. Psychiatry. conversion disorder.


hysteria

/ hɪˈstɪərɪə /

noun

  1. a mental disorder characterized by emotional outbursts, susceptibility to autosuggestion, and, often, symptoms such as paralysis that mimic the effects of physical disorders See also conversion disorder
  2. any frenzied emotional state, esp of laughter or crying


hysteria

  1. A complex neurosis in which psychological conflict is turned into physical symptoms, such as amnesia , blindness, and paralysis , that have no underlying physical cause. Early in his career, Sigmund Freud worked on hysteria.


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Other Words From

  • subhys·teri·a noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of hysteria1

First recorded in 1795–1805; hyster(ic) + -ia

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Word History and Origins

Origin of hysteria1

C19: from New Latin, from Latin hystericus hysteric

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Example Sentences

Over the weekend, a GameStop store in Maryland illustrated the disconnect between the Wall Street hysteria that has sent the company’s stock price to dizzying heights and the video game retailer’s real-world struggles.

The ensuing hysteria led to sheriffs’ offices and firefighters wasting critical time and resources on nuisance calls.

From Fortune

Given the risk of misinformation before and even more important immediately after the election, anything that tamps down the hysteria out there is particularly needed.

From Vox

So that’s been my kind of push and effort to make sure we do things smartly, common sense, avoid the hysteria, get people back to work and get people healthy at the same time.

I’m just trying to make sure the … numbers match the hysteria and that’s not the case right now.

“Vicious pecking, avian hysteria, mysterious deaths, and even cannibalism” are the results, he writes.

The best way to fix the Internet would be to let the Kardashian butt hysteria die down.

Korematsu knew firsthand the dangers of war-time hysteria and pleaded that we not make that mistake again.

I might suggest a title:  “Andromeda Strain 2: The Predictable Hysteria.”

At the time, before ISIS had conquered Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, the attack evoked outrage but not hysteria.

Its internal uses are in hysteria, and 136 in such conditions as diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera.

The walking may simulate paralytic forms if hysteria is mixed with the neurasthenia.

There is no direct connection between hysteria and the disorders of the sexual organs.

The Tarantism so common in Italy from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century is another example of epidemic hysteria.

There are numerous theories formulated to explain hysteria; some are ingenious, especially that of Janet, but none is convincing.

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hysteresis losshysteric