mysophobia

[ mahy-suh-foh-bee-uh ]

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. an irrational or disproportionate fear of germs and contamination.

Other Words From

• my·so·phobe [mahy, -s, uh, -fohb], noun
• my·so·pho·bic adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of mysophobia¹

First recorded in 1875–80; from Greek mýso(s) “pollution, defilement, terrible sight” + -phobia

Example Sentences

Still, it's tempting to pick out certain traits – like her mysophobia or her obsession with starring in holiday song-and-dance performances despite being ridiculously tone deaf – and link them to specific leaders.

From Salon

Writing last year in Glamour, Akanksha Singh wrote candidly about her pre-existing mysophobia — fear of germs — saying that she'd been surprised to find that "my germ anxiety suddenly feels validated — now everyone sees the germs I see everywhere…The pandemic has actually helped ease my phobia."

From Salon

Q: So, you have mysophobia, which is the intense fear of germs or an irrational fear of germs.

From Washington Post

Like many children with autism, Ke Jun has some extremely personal habits, such as mysophobia – he couldn’t touch the leaked acrylic paint while painting.

From Time

Some of these "phobies" have been often described of late years,—as, for instance, agoraphobia, which makes a man dread to cross an open space; and its converse claustrophobia, which makes him shrink from sitting in a room with closed doors; or the still more distressing mysophobia, which makes him constantly uneasy lest he should have become dirty or defiled.

From Project Gutenberg