misophonia

American  

[mees-oh-foh-nee-uh] / mis oʊˈfoʊ ni ə /

noun

1. Psychiatry. a condition characterized by extreme sensitivity and reactivity to specific, typically repetitive and relatively soft sounds, as breathing, chewing, swallowing, clicking, etc..

   In patients with misophonia, an auditory stimulus provoked an immediate physical reaction, with anger, disgust, and sometimes even impulsive aggression.

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Other Word Forms

• misophonic adjective

Etymology

Origin of misophonia

miso- ( def. ) + Greek -phōnia ( -phony ( def. ) ); coined by audiologists Pawel J. and Margaret M. Jastreboff in 2001

Example Sentences

She's now helping her daughter, who has misokinesia and misophonia.

From BBC • Dec. 13, 2024

I spoke with Dr Jane Gregory, a clinical psychologist at Oxford University in the UK, who has been studying and treating both misokinesia and misophonia.

From BBC • Dec. 12, 2024

I live with someone who has misophonia, and there are certain sounds she simply cannot tolerate, through no fault of her own.

From New York Times • May 14, 2023

Some people have a condition called misophonia, which triggers intense reactions to certain sounds.

From The Verge • Nov. 9, 2021

The brain's auditory cortex, which processes sound, reacted similarly in subjects with and without misophonia.

From Scientific American • Sep. 8, 2021