Phobias

In psychology and psychiatry, a phobia is an irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder, and is generally a mental disorder. In mental health fields, the suffix -phobia from Greek refers to the fear, the adjective suffix is -phobic (describing a person with such a fear), and the suffix -phobe refers to a person with such a phobia (e.g., acrophobia, acrophobic, acrophobe, for fear of heights).

These suffices are also used in chemistry, medicine, and biology for describing chemical aversions (e.g., hydrophobic), for describing organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g., acidophobia), or for describing 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 antonymic suffixes are -phil, -phile, philic (e.g., photophilic).

1 Psychological phobias

Below is a list of phobias that are diagnosed in health sciences.

Phobia	Source of fear
Achluophobia	darkness
Acousticophobia	noise (a form of phonophobia)
Acrophobia	heights
Aerophobia	aircraft or flying
Agoraphobia	open places
Agyrophobia	crossing streets
Aichmophobia	sharp or pointed objects such as a needle or knife
Ailurophobia	cats (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Alektorophobia	chickens (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Anatidaephobia	ducks (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Algophobia	pain
Ancraophobia	wind or drafts
Androphobia	adult men
Apeirophobia	excessive infinity, eternity, and the uncountable
Apiphobia	bees (fear or dislike) (also: melissophobia)
Aphenphosmphobia	being touched
Apotemnophobia	becoming an amputee
Aquaphobia	water
Arachnophobia	spiders and other arachnids such as scorpions (a zoophobia)
Astraphobia	thunder and lightning
Atelophobia	imperfection
Autophobia	isolation
Bacteriophobia	bacteria
Basophobia	fear associated with astasia-abasia (walking/standing erect) and falling (also: basiphobia)
Batrachophobia	frogs and other amphibians (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Belonephobia	needles (also: trypanophobia, enetophobia) needles or injections
Bibliophobia	books
Cacophobia	ugliness (also: aschimophobia)
Carcinophobia	cancer
Catoptrophobia	mirrors
Chemophobia	chemicals
Cherophobia	happiness
Chiroptophobia	bats (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Chromophobia	colors (also: chromatophobia)
Chronophobia	time and time moving forward
Chronomentrophobia	clocks
Cibophobia	aversion to food, synonymous with anorexia nervosa (also: sitophobia)
Claustrophobia	having no escape and being closed in
Coimetrophobia	cemeteries
Coitophobia	sexual intercourse (also: genophobia)
Coprophobia	feces or defecation
Coulrophobia	clowns
Cyberphobia	computers
Cynophobia	dogs (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Dentophobia	dentists
Diagraphephobia	deleting files or an extreme losing your computer data
Domatophobia	houses
Dysmorphophobia	body dysmorphic disorder (a phobic obsession with a real or imaginary body defect)
Ecophobia	cataclysmic environmental change
Eisoptrophobia	mirrors or seeing one's reflection in a mirror
Emetophobia	vomiting
Enochlophobia	crowds
Entomophobia	insects (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Ephebiphobia	youth; inaccurate, exaggerated and sensational characterization of young people
Equinophobia	horses
Ergophobia	work or functioning, or a surgical operations (also: ergasiophobia)
Erotophobia	sexual love or sexual abuse
Erythrophobia	the color red, or blushing (also: erytophobia, ereuthophobia)
Eurotophobia	aversion to female genitals
Frigophobia	becoming too cold
Gamophobia	marriage
Gelotophobia	being laughed at
Gephyrophobia	bridges
Genophobia	sexual intercourse (also: coitophobia)
Genuphobia	knees or the act of kneeling
Gerascophobia	growing old or aging
Germophobia	germs or contaminaiton (also: mysophobia)
Gerontophobia	growing old, or a hatred or the elderly
Globophobia	balloons
Glossophobia	speaking in public or of trying to speak
Gymnophobia	nudity
Gynophobia	adult women
Halitophobia	bad breath
Haphephobia	being touched
Heptadekaphobia	the number 17 (also: heptadecaphobia)
Hedonophobia	obtaining pleasure
Heliophobia	the sun or sunlight
Helminthophobia	worms (a zoophobia) (also: scoleciphobia, vermiphobia)
Hemophobia	blood (also: haemophobia)
Herpetophobia	reptiles or amphibians (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia	the number 666
Hippophobia	horses (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Hodophobia	travel
Hypnophobia	sleep or nightmares (also: somniphobia)
Ichthyophobia	fish, including eating fish, or dead fish (a zoophobia)
Insectophobia	insects
Koumpounophobia	buttons on clothing
Lilapsophobia	tornadoes or hurricanes
Lepidopterophobia	butterflies and moths
Mageiricophobia	cooking
Masklophobia	people in masks, costumes and mascots
Melanophobia	the color black
Melissophobia	bees (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia) (also: apiphobia)
Monophobia	being alone or isolated or of one's self
Musophobia	mice or rats (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia) (also: murophobia, suriphobia)
Mycophobia	mushrooms
Myrmecophobia	ants
Mysophobia	germs, contamination or dirt (also: germophobia)
Necrophobia	death or the dead
Neophobia	newness, novelty, change or progress (also: cainophobia, cainotophobia, centophobia, kainolophobia, kainophobia, metathesiophobia, prosophobia)
Noctiphobia	nighttime, the night
Nomophobia	being out of mobile phone contact
Nosocomephobia	hospitals
Nosophobia	contracting a disease
Nostophobia	returning home (also: ecophobia)
Numerophobia	numbers
Nyctophobia	darkness (also: achluophobia, lygophobia, scotophobia)
Obesophobia	gaining weight
Odontophobia	dentists and dental procedures
Oikophobia	home surroundings and household appliances
Odontophobia	dental fear
Ommetaphobia	eyes
Oneirophobia	dreams
Ophidiophobia	snakes (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Ophthalmophobia	being stared at
Ornithophobia	birds (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Osmophobia	odors (also: olfactophobia)
Ostraconophobia	shellfish (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Panphobia	everything or constant an unknown cause
Pedophobia	babies and children (also: paedophobia, pediaphobia)
Phagophobia	swallowing
Phallophobia	erections
Pharmacophobia	medications
Phasmophobia	ghosts or phantoms
Philophobia	love
Phyllophobia	leaves
Phobophobia	fear itself or of having a phobia
Phonophobia	loud sounds or voices
Pogonophobia	beards
Pornophobia	pornography (fear or dislike, or opposition to visual nudity)
Porphyrophobia	the color purple
Pteromerhanophobia	flying
Pyrophobia	fire
Radiophobia	radioactivity or X-rays
Ranidaphobia	frogs (fear or dislike) (a zoophobia)
Scopophobia	being looked at or stared at
Sexophobia	sexual organs or sexual activities
Siderodromophobia	trains or railroads
Social phobia	people or social situations
Somniphobia	sleep
Spectrophobia	mirrors
Stasiphobia	standing or walking
Submechanophobia	partially or fully submerged man-made objects
Taphophobia	graves, or being buried alive (also: taphephobia)
Technophobia	advanced technology (sometimes known as a Luddite)
Telephone phobia	making or taking telephone calls (fear or reluctance)
Teratophobia	giving birth to a monster or a disfigured fetus
Tetraphobia	the number 4
Thalassophobia	the sea, or being in the ocean
Thanatophobia	dying
Thermophobia	intolerance to high temperatures
Tokophobia	childbirth or pregnancy
Tomophobia	invasive medical procedure
Tonitrophobia	thunder
Toxiphobia	being poisoned
Traumatophobia	injuries, having an injury
Trichophobia	hair or hair loss; delusional belief that something is in one's hair roots that stops it from growing
Triskaidekaphobia	the number 13 (also: terdekaphobia)
Trypanophobia	needles or injections (also: belonephobia, enetophobia)
Trypophobia	holes, objects with many holes, or textures with a pattern of holes
Vehophobia	driving, or driving anxiety
Verminophobia	germs
Workplace phobia	the workplace, a subset of ergophobia
Xanthophobia	the color yellow
Zoophobia	animals

2 Cultural and ethnic prejudice

2.1 Cultural and social groups

The following terms refer to dislike, hatred, fear, or prejudice toward certain social groups.

Phobia term	Social group
Acephobia	asexual people
Biphobia	bisexuality or bisexuals
Ephebiphobia	youth
Gerontophobia, gerascophobia	aging or the elderly
Heterophobia	heterosexuals
Homophobia	homosexuality, homosexuals, or gays (as opposed to lesbians) men
Lesbophobia	lesbians
Pedophobia	babies or children
Psychophobia	mental illness or the mentally ill
Transphobia	transgender people

2.2 Ethnic groups

The following terms refer to dislike, hatred, fear, or prejudice toward certain ethnic groups or nationalities.

Phobia term	Ethnic group or nationality
Afrophobia	Africans
Albanophobia	Albanians
Anglophobia	England or English culture
Christianophobia	Christians
Germanophobia	Germans
Hinduphobia	Hindus
Hispanophobia	ispanic people, Hispanic culture and the Spanish language
Hungarophobia	of Hungarians
Indophobia	India or Indian culture
Iranophobia	Iran or Iranian culture
Islamophobia	Muslims
Judeophobia	Jews
Lusophobia	Portuguese, Portuguese culture and the Portuguese language
Nipponophobia	Japanese
Koryophobia	Koreans
Latinophobia	Latin people
Negrophobia	black people
Polonophobia	Polish
Russophobia	Russians
Shiaphobia	Shiites
Sinophobia	Chinese people
Sunniphobia	Sunnis
Turcophobia	Turks
Xenophobia	foreigners

3 Other uses of phobia terms

The following terms refer to medical conditions.

• Osmophobia: hypersensitivity to smells causing aversion to odors
• Phonophobia: hypersensitivity to sound causing aversion to sounds
• Photophobia: hypersensitivity to light causing aversion to light

These phobial terms refer not to psychological fears, but cultural and social phenomena.

• Bibliophobia: fear or hatred of books, as a cultural phenomenon
• Lipophobia: avoidance of fats in food
• Coronaphobia: fear of COVID-19

The following phobia terms are used in biology and health sciences for biological responses in organisms.

1. Acidophobia/acidophobic: preference for non-acidic conditions
2. Heliophobia/heliophobic: aversion to sunlight
3. Hydrophobia/hydrophobic: the property of being repelled by water
4. Lipophobicity: the property of fat rejection (sometimes also called lipophobia)
5. Oleophobicity: the property of oil rejection
6. Photophobia (biology): a negative phototaxis or phototropism response, or a tendency to stay out of the light
7. Ultrahydrophobicity: the property given to materials that are extremely difficult to get wet
8. Thermophobia: aversion to heat

Finally, phobial terms are sometimes coined whimsically and find their way around social media and popular culture. The following terms are not official terms or medically recognizied terms, but fictional or colloquial terms that are coined for humor or other purposes.

1. 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.
2. 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 comic strip, The Far Side.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Semaphobia: fear of average web developers to use Semantic Web technologies.
11. Venustraphobia: fear of beautiful women, according to a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News. Venustraphobia is also the title of a 2006 album by Casbah Club.