phobia

CEFRB2

/ˈfəʊ.bi.ə/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An extreme and unreasonable fear of something.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    An aversion or dislike (of something).

Examples

  • He has a phobia of Jaffa Cakes.

  • Sami has developed a weird phobia of cars.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Also pronounced

  • /ˈfoʊ.bi.ə/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

  1. An irrational, abnormal, or obsessive fear (of something).

More examples

In context

  • I have a phobia for that.

  • I know someone with a strange phobia of ladders.

  • It was when anthropophobia set in, when he was made uneasy by people who walked too close to him, that, sagely viewing his list and seeing how many phobias were now checked, he permitted himself to rest.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Her extreme blank of heights kept her from climbing the tall ladder.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

First attested in c. 1790, from words ending in -phobia, ultimately from Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear”). Compare ism, from -ism, itis, from -itis, and ana, from -ana.