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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, of notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News. 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". Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines.

An article published in 1897 in 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, triakaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13....)".

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)

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Cultural prejudices and discrimination

Ethnic/national/religious prejudices and discrimination

The suffix -phobia is used to coin terms that denote a particular anti-ethnic or anti-demographic sentiment, such as Americanophobia, 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.

Medical conditions

Cultural phenomena

-phobia in the natural sciences

In the natural sciences, words with the suffix -phobia/-phobic generally describe a predisposition for avoidance and/or exclusion. For antonyms, see here

Jocular and fictional phobias

• Aibohphobia – a humorous 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.
• 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.
• Anoraknophobia – a portmanteau of "anorak" and "arachnophobia". It was 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, from Latin arachis "peanut" and butyrum "butter". The word is used by Charles M. Schulz in a 1982 installment of his Peanuts comic strip, and by Peter O'Donnell in his 1985 Modesty Blaise adventure novel Dead Man's Handle.
• 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.
• Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words, from the root word sesquipedalophobia combined with monstrum and hippopotamus. This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as a Tickle's Teaser.
• 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.
• Robophobia – irrational fear of robots and/or androids, also known as "Grimwade's Syndrome". It was first used in "The Robots of Death", the fifth serial of the 14th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
• Semaphobia – fear of average web developers to use Semantic Web technologies.
• Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women, according to a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.

See also

• List of paraphilias
• List of manias
• Childhood phobia
• Specific phobia

• Psychology
• Lists

References

1. ^ The A–Z of Fear, a 30 October 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section
2. "Content Spammers Help You Overcome Prostitute Phobia". Webpronews.com. 25 August 2005. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
3. Hall GS (1897). "A Study of Fears". American Journal of Psychology. 8 (2). University of Illinois Press: 157. doi:10.2307/1410940. ISSN 0002-9556. JSTOR 1410940.
4. Grant A (31 October 2021). "Common Plant Phobias – Fear of Flowers, Plants, and More". Gardening Know-How. Retrieved 17 March 2023. Dracula no doubt would have alliumphobia, the fear of garlic.
5. Possible cultural factor:
   • Humes M (24 December 2009). "The Way We Ate: Fear of Garlic". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 March 2023. From the 1880s to the 1930s, a period of accelerated immigration and great social change, garlic was the stench of the flophouse, the dominant note in the 'rich olfactory uneasiness' that blew in from Ellis Island, and the go-to metaphor for immigrant neighborhoods. Its sulfurous tang was almost beside the point; the bulb smelled of foreign incursion.
6. Possible observation factor: Allium#Toxicity – "Dogs and cats are very susceptible to poisoning after the consumption of certain species. Even cattle have suffered onion toxicosis." Cites include:
   • Cope R (August 2005). "Toxicology Brief: Allium species poisoning in dogs and cats" (PDF). Veterinary Medicine. 100 (8): 562–566. [Peer-reviewed.]
   • Rae HA (January 1999). "Onion toxicosis in a herd of beef cows". Canadian Veterinary Journal. 40 (1): 55–57. PMC 1539652. PMID 9919370. While humans appear to be relatively resistant to onion toxicity, there is some concern about the susceptibility of certain ethnic groups that have a genetic deficiency of G6PD. / Onion toxicity depends on factors other than variation in species susceptibility. Onions contain varying amounts of disulfide and SMCO toxins, depending on the species of onion, time of year, and growing conditions. Storing onions in large piles also provides a suitable environment for contamination of the crop with other toxins, such as mycotoxins, which could contribute to the disease process.
7. Possible experience factor:
   • Singh Z (12 October 2022). "Potential Side Effects of Chives". Chives: Nutritional Value, Health Benefits and Potential Side Effects of Chives. Singapore: HealthifyMe. Retrieved 17 March 2023. Chives can be potential gastrointestinal irritants in some people. The reactive oxidants released by chives can stimulate bowel problems such as diarrhoea and acid reflux. / Alliums can cause digestive disorders. Chives belong to the Allium genus and have an acidic pH of 5.75. It is a pH range that would make gastritis worse. Moreover, the high fructans content in chives triggers acid reflux. It would aggravate gastritis.
8. ^ Campbell RJ (2009). Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary. Oxford University Press. pp. 375–. ISBN 978-0-19-534159-1.
9. Anonymous (12 September 2021). "Apotemnophobia (Fear of People with Amputations)". Psych Times. Covington, Louisiana. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
10. 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.
11. "This Phobia Causes the Fear of Being Forgotten and Forgetting Others". Health. Retrieved 10 January 2025.
12. McKnight P (13 April 2023). "Fear of forgetting, or being forgotten, is an epidemic". Vancouver Sun.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
13. "Fear of failure (atychiphobia): Symptoms and treatment". medicalnewstoday.com. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
14. Gould GM (1910). The Practitioner's Medical Dictionary (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: P. Blackiston's Son & Co. p. 100.
15. Akinola D (17 October 2020). "Belonephobia: The Fear of Pins and Needles". a Soothing Health. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
16. Yim L (August 2006). "Belonephobia--a fear of needles". Australian Family Physician. 35 (8): 623–624. ISSN 0300-8495. PMID 16894439.
17. Chionophobia (Fear of snow), Cleveland Clinic, Accessed:November 4, 2024
18. Thompson A (2019). Spiders, Clowns, and Great Mole Rats: Over 150 Phobias That Will Freak You Out, from Arachnophobia to Zemmiphobia. Ulysses Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-61243-932-7. Retrieved 25 February 2023 – via Google Books. Chronomentrophobia is the irrational fear of clocks, which usually extends to watches. ... The mere sight or sound of a ticking clock can cause depression and anxiety. People with this fear avoid clocks at all costs....
19. 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. PMC 8831965. PMID 35169508.
20. 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."
21. 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.
22. "Fear of Deletion". 13 May 2011.
23. "Dystychiphobia (Fear of Accidents): Symptoms & Treatment". Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
24. Sue D, Sue DW, Sue DM, Sue S (15 February 2013). Essentials of Understanding Abnormal Behavior. Cengage Learning. pp. 126–. ISBN 978-1-285-62475-4.
25. 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. PMC 4321006. PMID 25667801.
26. Bullough VL, Bullough B (2014). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 449. ISBN 9781135825096.
27. Winkler K (January 1957). "". Zeitschrift für Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten. 22 (2): 47–52. PMID 13409951.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. Russell J, Lintern F, Gauntlett L (1 September 2016). Cambridge International AS and A Level Psychology Coursebook. Cambridge University Press. p. 144. ISBN 9781316605691. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
31. 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.
32. "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!
33. Doran T (September 2002). "Chewproof (review)". Books Ireland. No. 251. Wordwell Books. p. 215. doi:10.2307/20632455. ISBN 978-1-902420-54-7. 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….
34. 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. ISBN 978-0-9630919-3-2. Retrieved 26 February 2023. phyllophobia: An excessive fear of leaves.
35. 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.
36. Roane HS, Ringdahl JE, Falcomata TS, eds. (2015). Clinical and Organizational Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis. Academic Press. p. 461. ISBN 978-0-12-420249-8.
37. Linder C (29 November 2019). "The 25 Coolest Shipwrecks in the World". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
38. "Teratophobia definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
39. "Teratophobia (Concept Id: C0522188)". MedGen. National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
40. 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. PMC 2803803. PMID 20062769.
41. 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. PMC 2990831. PMID 21180416.
42. Thomas G (15 October 2012). "Do holes make you queasy or even fearful". The Daily Herald. Arlington, IL. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
43. Jackson H (1932). The Fear of Books. University of Illinois. ISBN 978-0-252-07040-2.
44. 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.
45. Askegaard S, Ostberg J (2003). "Consumers' Experience of Lipophobia: A Swedish Study". Advances in Consume Research. 30: 161.
46. Askegaard S, Jensen AF, Holt DB (1999). "Lipophobia: A transatlantic concept?". Advances in Consume Research. 26 (1): 331–336.
47. 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. PMC 7474809. PMID 33271693.
48. Kelly-Bootle S (May 1995). "Aibohphobia". The Computer Contradictionary. MIT Press. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-262-61112-1.
49. 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.
50. "Fear of Peanut Butter: Why Arachibutyrophobia is a Real Phobia". United We Care. 22 May 2021.
51. Schultz C (19 May 1982). "Peanuts Comic Strip". GoComics.com.
52. "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.
53. 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.
54. "The Fourth Dimension". Doctor Who. Season 14. BBC One.
55. 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. ISBN 978-1-4577-0871-8. S2CID 14815713.

Further reading

• Aldrich C (2 December 2002). The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Trafford Publishing. pp. 224–236. ISBN 1-55369-886-X.
• Summerscale K (6 October 2022). The Book of Phobias and Manias. Profile Books. ISBN 9781788162814.

External links

• The Phobia List
• Nursing Degree Guide Archived 2 October 2019 at the Wayback Machine

• Phobias
• Medical lists
• Psychology lists
• Lists of words