trypophobia
Syllables: try·po·pho·bia/ˌtɹɪpəˈfəʊbi.ə/US/ˌtɹɪpəˈfoʊbi.ə/
trypophobia noun: an irrational or obsessive fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes, such as those found in honeycombs.
Noun
trypophobia (uncountable)
- An irrational or obsessive fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes, such as those found in honeycombs.
- Images of lotus seed heads are often reported as inducing trypophobia. Sufferers of trypophobia report that it is the visual percept that is particularly aversive.2013 October, G[eoff] G. Cole, A[rnold] J. Wilkins, “Fear of Holes”, in Psychological science, volume 24, number 10, →DOI, →PMID, pages 1980–1985
- In particular, individuals with trypophobia are fearful of clusters of holes that are found in a variety of objects and matter such as skin, coral, honeycombs, seed pods, and even aerated chocolate.2015, Irena Milosevic, Trypophobia (Fear of Holes), Irena Milosevic, Randi E. McCabe (editors), Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear, ABC-CLIO (Greenwood), page 401
trypophobia meaning in Tamil and Malayalam
trypophobia in Tamil
- துளை வெருளி
trypophobia in Malayalam
- trypophobia, the fear of cluster of small holes
- ട്രിപ്പോഫോബിയ ṭrippōphōbiya
Origin of trypophobia
From Ancient Greek τρῦπα (trûpa, “hole”), compare Ancient Greek τρυπάω (trupáō, “bore”), + -phobia (from Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear, phobia”)), said to have been coined by a blogger from Ireland in 2005.
Words that rhyme with trypophobia
- 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
- coulrophobia
- cynophobia
- decidophobia
- emetophobia
- epistolophobia
- erotophobia
- eurotophobia
- gephyrophobia
- graphophobia
- gymnophobia
- gynophobia
- heliophobia
- hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
Questions about trypophobia
- What does trypophobia mean?
- Trypophobia means an irrational or obsessive fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes, such as those found in honeycombs.
- What is trypophobia in Tamil?
- Trypophobia in Tamil is துளை வெருளி. See Trypophobia meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is trypophobia?
- Trypophobia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce trypophobia?
- Trypophobia is pronounced /ˌtɹɪpəˈfəʊbi.ə/ (UK).
Words near trypophobia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trypophobia (page history and authors); trypophobia (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ട്രിപ്പോഫോബിയ (Malayalam) (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)-Vealhurl-trypophobia.wav.
Cite this entry: “trypophobia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trypophobia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.