Difference between revisions of "List of phobias"

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The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (of Greek origin: φόβος/φοβία ) occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, 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. The suffix is antonymic to -phil-.

For more information on the psychiatric side, including how psychiatry groups phobias 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, of 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.

See also the category:Phobias.

Phobia lists

A large number of-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.

Psychological conditions

In many cases specialists prefer to avoid the suffix -phobia and use more descriptive terms, see, e.g., personality disorders, anxiety disorders, avoidant personality disorder, love-shyness.

• Ablutophobia – fear of bathing, washing, or cleaning.
• Acrophobia, Altophobia – fear of heights.
• Agoraphobia, Agoraphobia Without History of Panic Disorder – fear of places or events where escape is impossible or when help is unavailable.
• Agraphobia – fear of sexual abuse.
• Aichmophobia – fear of sharp or pointed objects (as a needle, knife or a pointing finger).
• Algophobia – fear of pain.
• Agyrophobia – fear of crossing roads.
• Androphobia – fear of men.
• Anthropophobia – fear of people or being in a company, a form of social phobia.
• Anthophobia – fear of flowers.
• Aquaphobia – fear of water. Distinct from Hydrophobia, a scientific property that makes chemicals averse to interaction with water.
• Astraphobia, Astrapophobia, Brontophobia, Keraunophobia – fear of thunder, lightning and storms; especially common in young children.
• Atychiphobia, fear of failure
• Aviophobia, Aviatophobia – fear of flying.
• Bacillophobia, Bacteriophobia, Microbiophobia – fear of microbes and bacteria.
• Blood-injection-injury type phobia – a DSM-IV subtype of specific phobias
• Chorophobia - fear of dancing.
• Cibophobia, Sitophobia – aversion to food, synonymous to Anorexia nervosa.
• Claustrophobia – fear of confined spaces.
• Coulrophobia – fear of clowns (not restricted to evil clowns).
• Decidophobia – fear of making decisions.
• Dental phobia, Dentophobia, Odontophobia – fear of dentists and dental procedures
• Dysmorphophobia, or body dysmorphic disorder – a phobic obsession with a real or imaginary body defect.
• Emetophobia – fear of vomiting.
• Ergasiophobia, Ergophobia – fear of work or functioning, or a surgeon's fear of operating.
• Ergophobia – fear of work or functioning.
• Erotophobia – fear of sexual love or sexual questions.
• Erythrophobia – pathological blushing.
• Gelotophobia - fear of being laughed at.
• Gephyrophobia – fear of bridges.
• Genophobia, Coitophobia – fear of sexual intercourse.
• Gerascophobia – fear of growing old or aging.
• Gerontophobia – fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly.
• Glossophobia – fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak.
• Gymnophobia – fear of nudity.
• Gynophobia – fear of women.
• Halitophobia - fear of bad breath.
• Haptephobia – fear of being touched.
• Heliophobia – fear of sunlight.
• Hemophobia, Haemophobia – fear of blood.
• Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – fear of the number 666.
• Hoplophobia – fear of weapons, specifically firearms (Generally a political term but the clinical phobia is also documented).
• Ligyrophobia – fear of loud noises.
• Lipophobia – fear/avoidance of fats in food.
• Medication phobia - fear of medications.
• Megalophobia - fear of large/oversized objects.
• Mysophobia – fear of germs, contamination or dirt.
• Necrophobia – fear of death and/or the dead.
• Neophobia, Cainophobia, Cainotophobia, Cenophobia, Centophobia, Kainolophobia, Kainophobia – fear of newness, novelty.
• Nomophobia – fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
• Nosophobia – fear of contracting a disease.
• Nosocomephobia - fear of hospitals.
• Nyctophobia, Achluophobia, Lygophobia, Scotophobia – fear of darkness.
• Osmophobia, Olfactophobia – fear of smells.
• Paraskavedekatriaphobia, Paraskevidekatriaphobia, Friggatriskaidekaphobia – fear of Friday the 13th.
• Panphobia – fear of everything or constant fear of an unknown cause.
• Phasmophobia - fear of ghosts, spectres or phantasms.
• Phagophobia – fear of swallowing.
• Pharmacophobia – same as medication phobia.
• Phobophobia – fear of having a phobia.
• Phonophobia – fear of loud sounds.
• Pyrophobia – fear of fire.
• Radiophobia – fear of radioactivity or X-rays.
• Sociophobia – fear of people or social situations.
• Scopophobia – fear of being looked at or stared at.
• Somniphobia – fear of sleep.
• Spectrophobia – fear of mirrors and one's own reflections.
• Taphophobia – fear of the grave, or fear of being placed in a grave while still alive.
• Technophobia – fear of technology (see also Luddite).
• Telephone phobia, fear or reluctance of making or taking phone calls.
• Tetraphobia – fear of the number 4.
• Thanatophobia – fear of death.
• Tokophobia – fear of childbirth.
• Tomophobia – fear or anxiety of surgeries/surgical operations.
• Traumatophobia – a synonym for injury phobia: fear of having an injury.
• Triskaidekaphobia, Terdekaphobia – fear of the number 13.
• Trypanophobia, Belonephobia, Enetophobia – fear of needles or injections.
• Workplace phobia – fear of the workplace.
• Xenophobia – fear of strangers, foreigners, or aliens.

Animal phobias

• Ailurophobia – fear/dislike of cats.
• Animal phobia - fear of certain animals, a category of specific phobias.
• Apiphobia – fear/dislike of bees (also known as Melissophobia).
• Arachnophobia – fear/dislike of spiders and other arachnids.
• Chiroptophobia – fear/dislike of bats.
• Cynophobia – fear/dislike of dogs.
• Entomophobia – fear/dislike of insects.
• Equinophobia – fear/dislike of horses (also known as Hippophobia).
• Herpetophobia - fear/dislike of reptiles and/or amphibians.
• Ichthyophobia – fear/dislike of fish.
• Musophobia – fear/dislike of mice and/or rats.
• Ophidiophobia – fear/dislike of snakes.
• Ornithophobia – fear/dislike of birds.
• Scoleciphobia – fear of worms.
• Zoophobia – a generic term for animal phobias.

Non-psychological conditions

• Hydrophobia – fear of water (a symptom of rabies).
• Photophobia – hypersensitivity to light causing aversion to light
• Phonophobia – hypersensitivity to sound causing aversion to sounds.
• Osmophobia – hypersensitivity to smells causing aversion to odors.

Biology, chemistry

Biologists use a number of -phobia/-phobic terms to describe predispositions by plants and animals against certain conditions. For antonyms, see here.

• Acidophobia/Acidophobic – preference for non-acidic conditions.
• Heliophobia/Heliophobic – aversion to sunlight.
• Hydrophobia/Hydrophobic – a property of being repelled by water.
• Lipophobicity – a property of fat rejection
• Ombrophobia – avoidance of rain
• Photophobia (biology) a negative phototaxis or phototropism response, or a tendency to stay out of the light
• Superhydrophobe – the property given to materials that are extremely difficult to get wet.
• Thermophobia – aversion to heat.

Prejudices and discrimination

The suffix -phobia is used to coin terms that denote a particular anti-ethnic or anti-demographic sentiment, such as Europhobia, Francophobia, Hispanophobia, and Indophobia. Often a synonym with the prefix "anti-" already exists (e.g., Polonophobia vs. anti-Polonism). Anti-religious sentiments are expressed in terms such as Christianophobia and Islamophobia.

Other prejudices include:

• Biphobia – fear/dislike of bisexuals.
• Christianophobia - fear/dislike of Christians
• Ephebiphobia – fear/dislike of youth.
• Gerontophobia, Gerascophobia – fear/dislike of aging or the elderly.
• Heterophobia – fear/dislike of heterosexuals.
• Homophobia – fear/dislike of homosexuality or homosexuals.
• Islamophobia - fear/dislike of Muslims
• Judeophobia – fear/dislike of Jews.
• Lesbophobia – fear/dislike of lesbian women.
• Pedophobia, Pediophobia – fear/dislike of children.
• Psychophobia – fear/dislike of mental illness or the mentally ill.
• Transphobia – fear/dislike of transgender or transsexual people.
• Xenophobia – fear/dislike of foreigners.

Jocular and fictional phobias

• Aibohphobia – a joke term for the fear of palindromes, which is a palindrome itself. The term is a piece of computer humor entered into the 1981 The Devil's DP Dictionary^[3]
• Anachrophobia – fear of temporal displacement, from a Doctor Who novel by Jonathan Morris.
• Anatidaephobia – fear of being watched by a duck. Comes from Gary Larson's The Far Side.^[4]
• Anoraknophobia – a portmanteau of "anorak" and "arachnophobia". Used in the Wallace and Gromit comic book Anoraknophobia. Also the title of an album by Marillion.
• Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. The word is used by Peter O'Donnell in his 1985 Modesty Blaise adventure novel Dead Man's Handle.^[5] It had circulated, unattributed, in the Internet for some time until it landed at the CTRN Phobia Clinic website: "Working one-on-one with one of our team, with guaranteed lifetime elimination of Sticky Peanut Butter Phobia. From $1497 and up."
• Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words.^[6] Hippopoto- "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, "hippopotamine" has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear". Note: This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as one of Tickle's Teasers.
• Keanuphobia - fear of Keanu Reeves, portrayed in the Dean Koontz book, False Memory, where a woman has an irrational fear of Keanu Reeves and has to see her psychiatrist, Mark Ahriman, each week. He calls her the "Keanuphobe" in his head. She eventually ends up killing her psychiatrist because she believes that he is one of the Machine agents trying to control her.
• Luposlipaphobia - fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor, also from Gary Larson's The Far Side.
• Nihilophobia - fear of nothingness, as described by the Doctor in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Night. Voyager's morale officer and chef Neelix suffers from 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.
• Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women, according to a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.^[1] The word is a portmanteau of "Venus trap" and "phobia". Venustraphobia is the title of a 2006 album by Casbah Club.

Miscellaneous

• Arachnophobia – "fear/dislike of spiders," a film
• Chromophobia – "hatred/fear of colors," a film
• Choreophobia – hatred of dance, a book by Anthony Shay about Iranian dance and its prohibition after the Iranian Revolution
• Entomophobia – a genus of orchids. The word means "fear of insects"
• Philophobia, an album by Arab Strap
• Robophobia – a novel by Richard Evans

References

• Chris Aldrich (2002-12-02). The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-886-X. cs:Seznam fobií

de:Liste von Phobien et:Foobiate loend es:Anexo:Fobias fa:فهرست هراس‌ها fr:Liste des phobies hr:Dodatak:Popis fobija ka:ფობიების სია nl:Lijst van fobieën pt:Anexo:Lista de fobias ru:Список фобий sv:Lista över fobier

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} The A- Z of Fear, an October 30, 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section
2. ↑ Content Spammers Help You Overcome Prostitute Phobia
3. ↑ The Computer Contradictionary by Stan Kelly-Bootle, "Aibohphobia", p. 7
4. ↑ "I hate to burst Poway Unified's balloon". The San Diego Union-Tribune. 2006-06-10. 
5. ↑ The word appears in Chapter 10 when Modesty Blaise and her companion Willie Garvin play a word game in which Garvin challenges Blaise to decipher the meaning of words
6. ↑ Ben Farmer (10 Jan 2008). "Phobia catalogue reveals bizarre list of fears". Telegraph.co.uk. A catalogue of unusual phobias reveals that the fear of long words is known as hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.