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Phobias: a list
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Fear is a normal emotion that occurs in cases of imaginary or real threat to the human body, its principles, values. But when fears become obsessive for a person and interfere with his normal everyday life, they are already considered as phobias. The list of phobias is quite extensive, as there are more than 300 of their types.
If we take the object of fear as the basis for classification, we can identify several groups that combine various phobias. The list includes both fears known to many and those that are considered rare.
Phobias of a social nature. The list is represented by fears of the following:
- loneliness - autophobia
- men - androphobia
- women - gynecophobia
- public speaking - glossophobia
- clowns - coulrophobia
- talking to strangers or in public - logophobia
- corpses - necrophobia
- children - pedophobia
- being the object of intense scrutiny by other people – scopophobia
- blushing when in public – erythrophobia
Fear of moving in space and space itself. Here are quite common phobias. List of what a person may be afraid of:
- street, street intersection - agoraphobia
- open space - agoraphobia
- height - acrophobia
- confined space - claustrophobia
- stairs and walking on them - climacophobia
- hospital - nosocomephobia
- home and returning to it - oikophobia
- depth - bathophobia
- darkness - achluophobia
Sexual phobias can also be distinguished. The list of objects of fear is as follows:
- to become a victim of sexual harassment - agraphobia
- fear of sexual contacts, sex - genophobia
- phobia of getting pregnant - gravidophobia
- fear of kissing - philemaphobia
- fear of losing an erection - medomalakuphobia
Many people have phobias of animals and insects. The list is quite interesting. Although humans are the highest level of evolution, they can be afraid of:
- cats - ailurophobia
- wasps, bees - apiphobia
- snakes, reptiles - herpetophobia
- dogs - cynophobia
- ants - myrmecophobia
- frogs - ranidaphobia
- mice - musophobia
- spiders - arachnophobia
- fish - ichthyophobia
- horses - hippophobia
Natural phenomena can also cause phobias in people. The list is represented by fears of:
- sunlight - phengophobia
- moon - selenophobia
- flood - antlophobia
- water - hydrophobia
- forests - hylophobia
- flowers - anthrophobia
- lightning and thunder - brontophobia
- clouds - nephophobia
- fog - homichlophobia
Someone is afraid of getting into a specific situation:
- to be operated on - tomophobia
- getting married - gamophobia
- to make a mistake - atychiphobia
- to get dirty - mysophobia
- to find out the news (good) – eupophobia
There are also fears of illness:
- madness - lyssophobia
- syphilis - syphilophobia
- cancer, oncological diseases - cancerophobia
- illness or cardiac arrest - cardiophobia
- poisoning - toxicophobia
- baldness - peladophobia
Phobias can even relate to the human body and its individual parts. Thus, some experience fear of:
- wrinkles - ritiphobia
- knees - genuphobia
- teeth and their treatment - odontophobia
- hands - chirophobia
- unattractiveness of one's body - dysmorphophobia
- hair - chaetophobia
People may be overcome by phobias associated with death:
- fear of being buried alive - taphephobia
- death in general - thanatophobia
- fear of being strangled - pnigophobia
- phobia of cemeteries - coimetrophobia
A person can be haunted by various phobias, the list of which is periodically updated, and it is quite problematic to describe each one. One person can be bothered by only one fear, while another can be bothered by several at once. They can have varying degrees of severity, but they must be fought.