phobia

5 definitions • 9 examples

a type of anxiety disorder (= a mental illness that makes someone very worried and affects their life) that involves an extreme fear of something:

She refused the injection because she had a phobia about needles.

He has no real desire to travel and suffers from a phobia of flying.

For someone with social phobia, a conversation with a neighbour can cause a paralyzing sense of dread.

an extreme fear or dislike of a particular thing or situation, especially one that is not reasonable:

Why is there this phobia about women doing so-called men's jobs?

used to form words for types of anxiety disorder (= a mental illness that makes someone very worried and affects their life) that involve an extreme fear of something:

People who suffer from agoraphobia may panic when they're in public places.

Podophobia is a fear of feet.

used to form words that mean an extreme fear or dislike, especially one that is not reasonable:

They were accused of transphobia (hatred of transgender people).

He seemed to be suffering from a case of commitment-phobia.

an extreme fear of a particular thing or situation, esp. one that does not have a reasonable explanation:

a phobia about heights