aphenphosmphobia

aphenphosmphobia noun: a morbid fear of being touched.

Noun

aphenphosmphobia (uncountable)

A morbid fear of being touched.
- "What have you been treating Maureen for?"
  "Aphenphosmphobia. She is...she was scared of having her throat touched."2005, Christine Spindler, Faces of Fear, an Inspector Terry Mystery, Hard Shell Word Factory, page 65
- Since the stabbing she had struggled most with aphenphosmphobia, a morbid fear of physical contact with other human beings.2011, Craig Russell, The Carnival Master, page 107
Synonyms:

haphephobia

aphenphosmphobia meaning in Tamil and Kannada

aphenphosmphobia in Kannada

ಮುಟ್ಟುವಂಜಿಕೆ, ಮುಟ್ಟಂಜಿಕೆ, ಸೋಕುವಂಜಿಕೆ, ಸೋಕಂಜಿಕೆ

Synonyms of aphenphosmphobia

haphephobia

Origin of aphenphosmphobia

Unknown element(s) + -phobia. The initial aphe- element is likely based on Ancient Greek ἁφή (haphḗ, “touch”), the same root as haphephobia. There is no Greek root φοσμ- (phosm-) or φωσμ- (phōsm-), and φῶς (phôs, “light”) can be eliminated on semantic grounds, so the middle element is probably a fanciful invention or error.

Questions about aphenphosmphobia

What does aphenphosmphobia mean?: Aphenphosmphobia means a morbid fear of being touched.
What is aphenphosmphobia in Tamil?: Aphenphosmphobia in Tamil is தீண்டல் வெருளி, தொடுகை வெருளி. See Aphenphosmphobia meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is aphenphosmphobia?: Aphenphosmphobia is a noun.

Words near aphenphosmphobia in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: aphenphosmphobia (page history and authors); aphenphosmphobia (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aphenphosmphobia (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “aphenphosmphobia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aphenphosmphobia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.