neophobia

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
18
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/niːəˈfəʊbɪə/ (UK)

Definition of neophobia

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The fear or hatred of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations.
    “[T]he murdering of Mormons and the massacring of Armenians, express much rather that aboriginal human neophobia, […] than they express the positive piety of the various perpetrators.”
    “In response to the other July/August request, for a word to describe a "fear of inadvertently throwing something valuable out with the garbage," many, many phobias arrived. Evidently the readers who sent them in suffer from neither doxophobia (fear of expressing opinions) nor neophobia (fear of anything new or novel), and some would even seem to be remarkably free of catagelophobia (fear of being ridiculed).”
    “Between 6 and 12 months, babies are more open to new foods — and new experiences — than they will be later on as toddlers, when a certain amount of “neophobia” or “new means no” is developmentally normal, Ms. Lipner said. “Normal kids transition through a normal pickiness phase,” around 18 months, she said, when “they’re also learning autonomy and control.””

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From neo- + -phobia.

Words you can make from neophobia

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6-letter words

3 words

5-letter words

9 words

4-letter words

42 words

3-letter words

63 words

2-letter words

28 words

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to neophobia to make another valid word.

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