phobia
noun
Simple meaning
An anxiety disorder having extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fohbeeuhSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfoʊbiə
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An anxiety disorder characterized by extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations
“Phobic disorder is a general term for all phobias.”
An irrational, abnormal, or obsessive fear (of something).
An aversion or dislike (of something).
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An anxiety disorder characterized by extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations
Used this way, phobia is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
“Phobic disorder is a general term for all phobias.”
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- phobic disorder , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A child's sudden fear of attending school.
Any phobia (other than agoraphobia) associated with relatively simple well-defined stimuli.
Any phobia (other than agoraphobia) associated with situations in which you are subject to criticism by others (as fear of eating in public or public speaking etc).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: anxiety disorder characterized by extreme and irrational fear of simple things
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.