Phobia

How to spell phobia

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce phobia

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does phobia mean?

1. nounA persistent, irrational, and overwhelming fear of a particular thing or situation.

Phobia in a sentence

• Her phobia of flying meant she always took the train to meetings.

• The therapist specialised in treating each phobia with gradual exposure.

Where does phobia come from?

Language of origin: Greek

Phobia comes from the ancient Greek word phobos, which literally meant 'fear', 'panic', or 'flight in terror'; in early myth Phobos was even personified as the spirit of dread who accompanied the war god Ares into battle. The element travelled into scientific and medical Latin, where -phobia was used as a combining ending to name a morbid or irrational fear of some specific thing. By the eighteenth century English writers had begun lifting that ending off and using 'phobia' as a standalone noun for any persistent, excessive fear. The same phobos root powers a long list of familiar words such as claustrophobia, arachnophobia, and hydrophobia, and it sits in direct contrast to its Greek opposite -philia, meaning love or attraction. The spelling trap is purely Greek: the 'f' sound is written 'ph', and the quiet '-ia' ending is easy to mishear.

How the word is built

• phob- (from Greek phobos: fear, dread)
• -ia (noun suffix forming names of conditions)