stygiophobia means the fear of Hell. It carries an Arena rating of 1217, earned across 10 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, stygiophobia ranks #122 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #989 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,537 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #2,613 of 42,762 for Qualifying.
Why “stygiophobia” is a great word
An irrational fear of Hell and damnation. From the Latin stygius ("of the Styx, infernal"), itself from the Ancient Greek Στύγιος (Stúgios, "relating to Styx, one of the rivers of Hades"), combined with the suffix -phobia ("fear of"). Unlike "hadephobia" (which denotes a dread of the classical underworld as an abode) or "thanatophobia" (which is a terror of death's cessation), stygiophobia is a theological panic, a dread of the punitive afterlife. It is the cold sweat at a fire-and-brimstone sermon, the waking dread of an unabsolved sin, the specific chill of picturing an eternity not of oblivion but of curated pain—the terror not of ending, but of being forever judged.
Etymology
From Latin stygius, from Ancient Greek Στύγιος (Stúgios, “relating to Styx”), and -phobia.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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