From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishphobiapho‧bi‧a /ˈfəʊbiə $ ˈfoʊ-/ noun [countable, uncountable] MPFRIGHTENEDa strong unreasonable fear of somethingphobia about Owen has a phobia about snakes. Some children suffer from school phobia.► see thesaurus at fear —phobic adjective
Examples from the Corpus
phobia• Individuals with specific fears and phobias can learn to become unafraid.• It took Shapiro just three months to overcome 25 years of bridge phobia.• What is the cause of cat phobia?• Patients with depression, phobia, and obsessions were helped the most, patients with schizophrenia not as reliably.• He had provided a father-confessor figure to absolve the youngster's sins and absorb his phobias.• It shows itself in powerful emotions that surprise us, in the richness of dream images, and in phobias and prejudices.• But just as with other phobias, one of the best therapies is to just go ahead and do it.• Some people's phobia about cancer is so extreme that they can not bring themselves to think about it seriously.phobia about• I have a real phobia about going to places where I don't know anyone.-phobia-phobia /fəʊbiə $ foʊ-/ suffix [in nouns] 1 technicalMPFRIGHTENED a strong unreasonable dislike or fear of something, which may be part of a mental illness claustrophobia (=fear of being in a small enclosed space) aquaphobia (=fear of water)2 HATEa dislike or hatred of something Anglophobia (=a dislike of English or British things)Examples from the Corpus
-phobia• homophobiaOrigin phobia (1700-1800) Modern Latin Late Latin -phobia, from Greek, from phobos “fear” -phobia Late Latin → PHOBIA 