coulrophobia
/kəʊl.ɹəˈfəʊ.bi.ə/
coulrophobia noun: the fear of clowns.
Noun
coulrophobia (uncountable)
- The fear of clowns.
- […] to develop coulrophobia. On the seventh, clowns from around the world […] congregate at London's Holy Trinity Church for the annual Grimaldi Memorial Service.1999 February, “February: This month's marvels, musts, and misses”, in Condé Nast Traveler, volume 34, page 103
- Clowns are no laughing matter to Sean "Puffy" Combs. The swaggering rap royal is widely reported to suffer from coulrophobia, an irrational fear of the red-nosed, versized-shoe-wearing, greasepainted circus buffoons.2002 Jared Paul Stern, with Paula Froelich and Chris Wilson, "Send out the Clowns", Page Six (NYT)
- Synonyms:
- bozophobia, clownophobia
coulrophobia meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese
coulrophobia in Tamil
- கோமாளி வெருளி, கோமாளியச்சம்
coulrophobia in Vietnamese
- fear of clowns
- hội chứng sợ chú hề, ám ảnh sợ hãi chú hề, sợ hãi chú hề, sợ chú hề
Examples of coulrophobia in a sentence
- All 15 children are currently in therapy for coulrophobia!2003, Andy Field, Graham Hole, How to Design and Report Experiments, page 257:
- The ironic twist is that he recently admitted to a possible onset of coulrophobia.2006, Crimson de la Voire, Crimson’s Erotica: Volume One — A Collection of Stories About Submission and Pleasure, page 35:
Synonyms of coulrophobia
Origin of coulrophobia
Coined in the late 1980s or 1990s, of unknown origin, appearing first, without further explanation, in lists of phobias circulating on the Internet. First use appears c. 1997 according to the OED. According to a widespread theory, the term is based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”), allegedly chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of “clown”, + -phobia (“fear of”). This theory fails to explain the alteration of colo- to coulro-.
Words that rhyme with coulrophobia
- aerophobia
- gerontophobia
- homophobia
- hydrophobia
- -phobia
- agoraphobia
- bathophobia
- Francophobia
- phobia
- radiophobia
- uxorophobia
- xanthophobia
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- xenophobia
- ablutophobia
- acephobia
- acousticophobia
- acrophobia
- adverbophobia
- agraphobia
- aibohphobia
- aichmophobia
- algophobia
- altophobia
- amathophobia
- amaxophobia
- ambulophobia
- androphobia
- anthophobia
- aphobia
- apiphobia
- arachibutyrophobia
- arachnophobia
- astraphobia
- astrophobia
- aviatophobia
- aviophobia
- bacillophobia
- batrachophobia
- botanophobia
- brontophobia
- bryobia
- cacophobia
- cancerphobia
- carcinophobia
- claustrophobia
- clinophobia
- clithrophobia
- cynophobia
- decidophobia
- emetophobia
- epistolophobia
- erotophobia
- eurotophobia
- gephyrophobia
- graphophobia
- gymnophobia
- gynophobia
- heliophobia
- hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
- hippophobia
Questions about coulrophobia
- What does coulrophobia mean?
- Coulrophobia means the fear of clowns.
- What is coulrophobia in Tamil?
- Coulrophobia in Tamil is கோமாளி வெருளி, கோமாளியச்சம். See Coulrophobia meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use coulrophobia in a sentence?
- All 15 children are currently in therapy for coulrophobia!
- What part of speech is coulrophobia?
- Coulrophobia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce coulrophobia?
- Coulrophobia is pronounced /kəʊl.ɹəˈfəʊ.bi.ə/.
Words near coulrophobia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coulrophobia (page history and authors); coulrophobia (Tamil 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:
Cite this entry: “coulrophobia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coulrophobia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.