This week’s theme
Words made with combining forms

This week’s words
theomachy
kleptocrat
thanatophobia
euryphagous
uranomania

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(than-uh-tuh-FO-bee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: An excessive or irrational fear of death.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek thanato- (death) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1860.

NOTES:

We all have some fear of the inevitable, but if it’s a grave concern you might have thanatophobia. One possible response is thanatosis (playing dead) though we recommend thanatopsis (a reflection on death). As Rabindranath Tagore put it: “Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”

USAGE:

“Reincarnation offers a placebo for thanatophobia, and placebos can be amazingly effective.”
Kat Meltzer; Change the Channel; The Skeptical Inquirer (Buffalo, New York); Jul/Aug 1998.

See more usage examples of thanatophobia in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: