phobo-, phob-, -phobia, -phobias, -phobe, -phobiac, -phobist, -phobic, -phobism, -phobous

(Greek: fear, extreme fear of; morbid, excessive, irrational fear, or terror of something or someone; however, sometimes this Greek element also means a strong dislike, dread, or hatred for something or someone)


For more details about the various phobias, visit this Phobias Introduction page to see Phobia Variations Defined and Explained.

There are only two forces that unite men: fear and self-interest.

—Napoleon Bonparte
ceraunophobia, keraunophobia (s) (noun); ceraunophobias, keraunophobias (pl)
An excessive dread of lightning: In psychiatry, ceraunophobia is related to the fear of strong and superior forces, and as such, it appears to stem from an abnormal panic of thunder and flashes of light when such storms come.
chaetophobia (s) (noun), chaetophobias (pl)
An excessive aversion of hair, including hairy objects, animals, and even people: Paul has a chaetophobia whenever the neighbor's cat comes towards him or when his neighbor appears with her exceptionally long and curly locks.
charminphobia (s) (noun), charminphobias (pl)
A strong dislike of being hugged or pressed: Little Jimmy has charminphobia when his aunt comes to visit and he doesn't want to be picked up by her because she has a tendency to embrace him too tightly in her arms.
cheimaphobia, cheimatophobia (s) (noun); cheimaphobias, cheimatophobias (pl)
An abnormal fear of cold or frost, especially in winter, and of being cold; an aversion to cold things or cold air: People who have cheimaphobia, or the dread of the absence of adequate heat indoors, may overdress in their homes.

Some individuals who have cheimaphobia also avoid cold drinks and especially having ice in their drinks.

chemozoophobous (adjective), more chemozoophobous, most chemozoophobous
In biology, a reference to plants which protect themselves from herbivorous animals by the production of noxious chemical substances: Chemozoophobous vegetation prevents its consumption by producing a poisonous taste if eaten.
chionophobia (s) (noun), chionophobias (pl)
1. An abnormal fear of snow: Linda, affected by chionophobia, really disliked winter with the precipitation of white ice crystals along with the drifts, storms, and blizzards because she thought she might be stranded in it, and therefore she followed the weather reports many times a day.
2. A horror that the end of the world will occur in winter, preceded by a heavy snow storm: After reading her book on legends from the library, Becky found out that people in different countries suffer from chionophobia, believing that someday life will cease between fall and spring.
3. In biology, the aversion of some forms of life to snow-covered habitats or living areas: Chionophobia, or the resistance of existing in snow-clad areas, is found among some plants and animals which can only exist in hot deserts.
chiroptophobia (s) (noun) (no plural)
An aversion toward bats: Chiroptophobia is a specific revulsion associated with the night-flying mammals, and often based on prejudices and misinformation. Those affected by chiroptophobia are influenced by various dangers and irrational fears of darkness that involve centuries of bias and are greatly influenced by the myths of Dracula, Halloween, etc.

Based on chiroptophobia, vampires in stories and films are often portrayed as being able to transform into bats in order to accomplish their malicious activities.

chiroptophobiac (s) (noun), chiroptophobiacs (pl)
A person who has an abnormal terror of bats: Chiroptophobiacs have excessive fears of these mammals because they think that the creatures might suck their blood when they are sleeping or for other irrational reasons.
cholerophobia (s) (noun), cholerophobias (pl)
Relating to an excessive fear of being a victim of cholera or an infection of the small intestine by some strains of a bacteria: Cholerophobia is caused when a person dreads becoming afflicted with this disease which can include the symptoms of vomiting and muscle cramps.
choreophobia, chorophobia (s) (noun); choreophobias; chorophobias (pl;
An abnormal aversion of dancing: Choreophobia may be caused by being touched or held closely by one's partner, especially by someone of the opposite sex, and which may be related to sexual problems.
chromatophobia, chromophobia, chrematophobia (s) (noun) (no plural)
1. An abnormal antipathy of certain colors: Sometimes chromatophobia can be the result of a conditioned response to some bad experience one had toward a certain hue or shade of red, blue, green, yellow, etc., and can effect a psychological reaction.
2. Unsusceptibility or resistance to stains on the part of tissues and cells: Chromaphobia must be taken into consideration when trying to discolour, or dye fabric or even paper.
chrometophobia, chrematophobia (s) (noun) (no plural)
1. An aversion of dealing with money: Since Sara had chrometophobia she had a financial assistant to help her with her investments.
2. A dread of wealth and the money associated with it: Samuel's mother willed him thousands of dollars before she died which caused him to have chrometophobia.
chronophobia (s) (noun), chronophobias (pl)
Discomfort concerning the duration or immensity of time: Chronophobia is a common psycho-neurosis and anxiety of prison inmates and is also known as "stir crazy" by them.

Since chronophobia is considered the most common psychiatric disorder in prison inmates, sooner or later almost all prisoners suffer from it to some degree and it occurs in every potential neurotic who goes to prison.

After the novelty of prison has worn off and the real length of the sentence is felt, chronophobia sets in and the prisoner may go into a panic, usually while in his cell, and fears his enclosure and restraint, but this apparent claustrophobia arises from fear of time, as represented by the prison.

Following early anxieties, the chronophobia of the prisoner may become essentially a phlegmatic, indifferent automaton who serves the rest of his sentence by the clock and lives wholly in the present, one day at a time.

Chronophobia is characterized by panic, anxiety, and claustrophobia which is exhibited by prisoners having difficulty adjusting to long prison sentences.

cibophobia (s) (noun), cibophobias (pl)
An irrational distaste of eating food, sometimes with a particular food or class of foods: In some religions (Hindus are vegetarian, while Muslims and Jews are forbidden to eat pork), if a person consumes a forbidden aliment by mistake, or is forced to do so, he or she may vomit or feel nauseous for days.

Susan decided to lose weight by restricting the amount she had at meals, and lost much more than was necessary, and consequently suffered from cibophobia, or which is also known as anorexia.

Man is about to vomit because he didn't know that he had been eating a bat and it made him sick.
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The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.

—Mark Twain
claustrophobia (s) (noun) (no plural)
An intense horror of being shut up in a relatively small space: There are some people who are overwhelmed with different degrees of claustrophobia, or abnormal panic of being confined in limited or restricted places, such as closets, subways, tunnels, telephone booths, elevators, rooms, caves, aircraft, or other enclosed areas.
An extreme dread or fear of being in closed rooms or narrow spaces.
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