Overcoming Phobophobia Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bibliophobia

Bibliophobia is an intense fear of books, although it is possible to only fear a certain type of books (like children's books, or school textbooks), and not necessarily all of them. Biblio comes from the Greek biblion, which translates as book.

Other phobias that could be related to bibliophobia include logophobia (fear of words), hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words), metrophobia (fear of poetry), and mythophobia (fear of legends).

Answer: Coimetrophobia

Coimetrophobia is the irrational fear of cemeteries, and can include not just physical cemeteries, but even the thought of cemeteries. While reasons for developing coimetrophobia will differ, one of the primary triggers is a fear of dying or of things related to death. The root Greek word is koimeterion, which translates as burial place, grave, and final resting place.

Other phobias that sometimes coincide with coimetrophobia are phasmophobia (fear of ghosts), achluphobia (fear of darkness), and samhainophobia (fear of Halloween).

Answer: Alektorophobia

Alektorophobia is the fear of chickens, which is an example of a phobia that is specific to one thing, as opposed to one that is more generalized, or can include multiple things. Those who suffer from alektorophobia would not fear other types of birds (unless they had ANOTHER phobia).

Alektoro comes from the Greek word alektor, meaning rooster.

Answer: Nephophobia

Nephophobia is the irrational fear of clouds, with the Greek root nepho translating as cloud.

Nephophobia is considered quite rare, and is classified as a 'simple' phobia, in that its triggers are generally pretty straightforward. Researchers have concluded that the vast majority of weather-related phobias developed after experiencing some form of trauma due to a storm of some kind.

Other weather-related phobias include ancraophobia (fear of wind), astraphobia (fear of thunderstorms), lilapsophobia (fear of severe weather), and ombrophobia (fear of rain), to name a few.

Answer: Pediophobia

Pediophobia is the fear of dolls or inanimate objects that look real. A closely related phobia is pedophobia, which is the fear of children. Oftentimes, a person will have both phobias.

Pedio comes from the Greek paidion, which means little child.

While the most common foundation for both of these phobias comes out of childhood trauma, I can see how movies such as "Child's Play" or "M3GAN" could develop pediophobia in people, as well.

Answer: Anthophobia

Anthophobia is the persistent and intense fear of flowers, which may include all flowers, or be limited to specific types. This is another 'specific' phobia, and is not generally due to genetic reasons, but because of a traumatic experience in the past.

Antho comes from the Greek anthos, which, of course, means flower.

Answer: Scolionophobia

Scolionophobia is the overwhelming fear of school or going to school. While there can often be general anxiety for going to school at various time in a child's life, scolionophobia is a more debilitating fear and is often associated with other disorders.

Scoliono is from the Greek scius, which translates as knowing. Another term for the fear of school is didaskaleinophobia (from the Greek didasko, meaning teach).

Answer: Geliophobia

Geliophobia is the irrational fear of laughter, and is very similar to gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at) and gelophobia (fear of laughing). They are often used interchangeably. All of them come from the same root Greek term gelo, which, of course, means laugh.

There is even a Greek god by the name of Gelos, who was the divine personification of laughter.

Answer: Catoptrophobia

Catoptrophobia is the fear of mirrors, and is closely related to spectrophobia and to eisotrophobia.

The relation comes from the images represented, where catoptro (Greek katoptron) translates as mirror, spectro (Greek spectrum) means ghost, and eisotro is broken down to the Greek eis (into) and optikos (vision).

While the reasons for developing any of these phobias can be complex, there is often a connection to one's self-image in these fears. There is also a lot of lore in history about the fear of images, from which the idea of a broken mirror causing bad luck also comes.

Answer: Chrematophobia

With the Greek root for the word money (chrimata), chrematophobia (also chrometophobia) encompasses any or all of the fears of money, both physical and conceptual, spending money, dealing with money, the corrupting power of money, the responsibility associated with money, financial failure, or even the germs associated with handling money.

Answer: Arachibutyrophobia

Arachibutyrophobia is the irrational fear of peanut butter; specifically having it stick to the roof of your mouth. The Greek roots of the word are arachi (ground nut) and butyr (butter).

While no phobia's causes are simple to diagnose this 'simple' (not complex) phobia is typically related to the fear of choking (pseudodysphagia) or swallowing (phagophobia), or perhaps due to having experienced a bad allergic reaction as a child.

Answer: Testophobia

Testophobia is the debilitating fear of taking tests. Outside of the fear of the physical action of taking a test, there are numerous corollary issues, including fear of failure, low self-esteem, or of being seen to fail or be substandard in intelligence. For this reason, testophobia is often equated with social phobias.

Answer: Odontophobia

Odonotophobia is the irrational fear of teeth, and often grows from the childhood experience of losing teeth or from traumatic experiences that resulted in losing teeth.

With the same root Greek term odonto is the related fear of dentists and dentistry, called dentophobia.

Answer: Triskaidekaphobia

From the Greek number thirteen (treiskaideka) comes the (probably) familiar term triskaidekaphobia, which is the abnormal fear of the number thirteen. Related to this is paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th), including the Greek root word Paraskevi (Friday).

There are a number of origins behind the fear of the number thirteen, largely stemming from mythology or from general superstition. And while many people can be superstitious about that number, it is relatively rare for it to become a full, debilitating phobia.

Answer: Lachanophobia

While probably a good percentage of people dislike vegetables, lachanophobia takes it to the level of intense and irrational. And while having any phobia can be extremely difficult to deal with, lachanophobia can have other consequences relating to diet and nutrition. Not having sufficient vegetables in one's diet can cause a number of dangerous nutritional deficiencies.

Lachano is from the Greek lachaniko, meaning (you guessed it!) vegetable.