Word.ws English Dictionary

maranoia

UK/ˌmæɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/US/mæɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/

maranoia noun: anxiety, fear, or nervousness experienced by some individuals before or during a marathon.

Noun

maranoia (usually uncountable, plural maranoias)

  1. (colloquial, uncommon, usually) Anxiety, fear, or nervousness experienced by some individuals before or during a marathon.
    • And if I’m not stewing over a less-than-perfect training cycle then I’m mentally counting down the hours until I need to get up and prepare because, of course, I didn’t sort out my raceday essentials until the very last minute. No matter how many times I sign up, the state of ‘maranoia’ I work...2020, Amy Lane, Edward Lane, I Can Run: An Empowering Guide to Running Well Far, Hodder & Stoughton, page 206
    • The maranoia, on the other hand - that strange, hypochondriacal pre-race madness that affects marathon runners (and drives their friends and family potty) that’s largely gone, I’m pleased to say.2021, Vassos Alexander, How to Run a Marathon: The Go-to Guide for Anyone and Everyone, HarperCollins, page 7

Examples of maranoia in a sentence

  • No matter how many times I sign up, the state of ‘maranoia’ I work myself into is real.2020, Amy Lane, Edward Lane, I Can Run: An Empowering Guide to Running Well Far, Hodder & Stoughton, page 206:
  • So common, in fact, that the term ‘maranoia’ has been invented to describe it.2022, Sam Murphy, Run Your Best Marathon: Your trusted guide to training and racing better, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 200:

Forms of maranoia

pluralmaranoias

Origin of maranoia

Blend of marathon + paranoia.

Words that rhyme with maranoia

Questions about maranoia

What does maranoia mean?
Maranoia means anxiety, fear, or nervousness experienced by some individuals before or during a marathon.
How do you use maranoia in a sentence?
No matter how many times I sign up, the state of ‘maranoia’ I work myself into is real.
What part of speech is maranoia?
Maranoia is a noun.
How do you pronounce maranoia?
Maranoia is pronounced /ˌmæɹ.əˈnɔɪ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of maranoia?
The plural of maranoia is maranoias.

Words near maranoia in the dictionary

  1. Maranhão
  2. Maraniss
  3. Marano
  4. Maranoa
  5. Maranoa Heights
  6. maranoia
  7. Maranon
  8. Maranons
  9. Maranos
  10. Marans
  11. maranta

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: maranoia (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.

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