agoraphobic
/ˌæɡ.ɚ.əˈfoʊ.bɪk/
agoraphobic means of, pertaining to or suffering from agoraphobia. It carries an Arena rating of 1412, earned across 61 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, agoraphobic ranks #1,917 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,554 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #3,659 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #5,142 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
agoraphobic is pronounced /ˌæɡ.ɚ.əˈfoʊ.bɪk/.
Why “agoraphobic” is a great word
AGORAPHOBIC — [Adjective] Relating to or suffering from an irrational fear of open or public spaces from which escape might seem difficult. From agora- (from Greek ἀγορά, "public assembly, marketplace") + -phobic (from Greek -φοβικός, "fearing"), modeled after the noun agoraphobia, which was coined in 1871 by the Berlin psychiatrist Carl Westphal. Unlike claustrophobic, which dreads confinement, or reclusive, which implies a chosen withdrawal, agoraphobic describes an involuntary terror of exposure and perceived inescapability. It is the paralyzing stillness at a threshold, the supermarket aisle that lengthens into a canyon, and the front door that becomes an insurmountable barrier—a private geography where the world's openness is the most confining prison.
Etymology
From agora- + -phobic, see agoraphobia.
adj
- Of, pertaining to or suffering from agoraphobia.e.g.“[…] spaces horizontal and sparsely inhabited had always induced in him a depression accompanied by agoraphobic sensations.” — 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, New York: Random House, Part 1, p. 49:
noun
- One who suffers from agoraphobia.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.