taphophobia means a fear of being buried alive. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
TAPHOPHOBIA — [Noun] An irrational and persistent fear of being buried alive. From the Ancient Greek τάφος (táphos, "grave, tomb") and -φοβία (-phobía, "fear"). Unlike claustrophobia (which shudders at any confined space) or thanatophobia (which trembles before the abstract state of death), taphophobia fixates on the hideously specific limbo between the two. It is the imagined grit of soil on a coffin lid, the muffled thud of the last shovelful overhead, and the frantic, splintering scratch against polished pine—the ultimate epistemological nightmare: the dread not of extinction, but of being perfectly, irrevocably present for your own absence.
noun
- a fear of being buried alive