death anxiety

[ deth ang-zahy-i-tee ]

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. a morbid awareness of mortality, together with an extreme fear of one’s own death, the process of dying, the afterlife, or the death of a loved one: The data may show a negative correlation of death anxiety and religiosity.

   There wasn’t a single negative event that triggered my existential death anxiety—just the intrusive, obsessive thought of not existing.

   The data may show a negative correlation of death anxiety and religiosity.

Word History and Origins

Origin of death anxiety¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

The religious narrative resolved our death anxiety through faith in an afterlife.

From The Daily Beast