-phobe
/-foʊb/
-phobe suffix: used to form nouns denoting a person having a fear of a specific thing.
Suffix
-phobe (noun-forming suffix, plural -phobes)
- Used to form nouns denoting a person having a fear of a specific thing.
- claustrophobe
- Risk is everywhere.[…]For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles”[…]aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 11 Jan 2025, page 76
- Used to form nouns denoting a person who hates or dislikes a type of person, thing, etc.
- homophobe
Synonyms of -phobe
Antonyms
Forms of -phobe
| plural | -phobes |
|---|
Origin of -phobe
From French -phobe, from Latin -phobus, from Attic Greek -φόβος (-phóbos), combining form of φόβος (phóbos), ablaut variant of φέβεσθαι (phébesthai), middle infinitive of φέβομαι (phébomai), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰegʷ-. Cognates include Russian бегать (begatʹ, “run, flee”), Slovak bežať (“run”), Polish biec (“run”), Lithuanian bėgti (“run”), Albanian dëboj (“throw out, drive away, expel, banish”). Compare German -phob.
Words formed from -phobe
Questions about -phobe
- What does -phobe mean?
- -phobe means used to form nouns denoting a person having a fear of a specific thing.
- What part of speech is -phobe?
- -phobe is a suffix.
- How do you pronounce -phobe?
- -phobe is pronounced /-foʊb/.
Words near -phobe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: -phobe (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame--phobe.wav.
Cite this entry: “-phobe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-phobe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.