Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Agoraphobia |
AgoraphobiaNoun1. A morbid fear of open spaces (as fear of being caught alone in some public place). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "agoraphobia" was first used: 1873. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Health | Obsessive, persistent, intense fear of open places. (references) |
Medicine | The dread of open spaces. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Agoraphobia is a form of anxiety disorder. The name is literally translated as "a fear of the marketplace" (Greek agora, and thus of open or public spaces. Many people suffering from agoraphobia, however, are not afraid of the open spaces themselves, but of situations often associated with these spaces, such as social gatherings. Others are comfortable seeing visitors, but only in a defined space they feel in control of--such a person may live for years without leaving his home, while happily seeing visitors and working, as long as they can stay within their safety zone.
An agoraphobic experiences severe panic attacks during situations where they feel trapped, insecure, out of control, or too far from their personal comfort zone. During severe bouts of anxiety, the agoraphobic is confined not only to their home, but to one or two rooms and they may even become bedbound until their over-stimulated nervous system can quieten down, and their adrenaline levels return to a more normal level.
Agoraphobics are often extremely sensitised to their own bodily sensations, sub-consciously over-reacting to perfectly normal events. To take one example, the exertion involved in climbing a flight of stairs may be the cause for a fullblown panic attack, because it increases the heartbeat and breathing rate, which the agoraphobic interprets as the start of a panic attack instead of a normal fluctuation.
Agoraphobia can be successfully treated in many cases through a very gradual process of graduated exposure therapy combined with cognitive therapy and sometimes anti-anxiety or antidepressant medications.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Agoraphobia."
Crosswords: Agoraphobia |
| English words defined with "agoraphobia": agoraphobic ♦ simple phobia, social phobia. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Those with agoraphobia tend to have a more severe and complicated course. (references) | |
If the agoraphobia becomes severe enough, a person may become housebound. (references) | ||
Panic disorder with agoraphobia is diagnosed about twice as frequently in females as in males. (references) | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Agoraphobia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 97.06% of the time. "Agoraphobia" is used about 34 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 97.06% | 33 | 60,273 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.94% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 34 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
agoraphobia | 411 |
agoraphobia treatment | 10 |
panic disorder with agoraphobia | 5 |
agoraphobia cause | 5 |
agoraphobia symptom | 5 |
agoraphobia attack panic | 3 |
agoraphobia medication | 3 |
agoraphobia cure | 3 |
agoraphobia phobia | 3 |
help with agoraphobia | 2 |
agoraphobia definition | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "agoraphobia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | agorafobie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | خوف مرضي, رهاب الخلاء من الأرض الفضاء, رهبة الخلات. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | страх от отворени пространства, агорафобия. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | agorafobie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | agorafobi, pladsangst. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | agorafobie, ruimtevrees, pleinvrees. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | agorafobio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | agoraphobie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Platzangst (claustrophobia), Agoraphobie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | αγοραφοβία. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | בעת חוץ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tériszony (acrophobia), nyílt tértõl való félelem. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | agorafobia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | アクリル繊維 (accommodator, accord, accordion, accordion door, accordion pleats, achromatic lens, acid, acidosis, acoustic, acoustic guitar, acoustic sound, acrobat, acrobatic, acrobatic dance, acrobatic dancer, acropolis, acrylic fiber, acrylonitrile, against, against wind, agglomeration, aggressive, agitation, agreement, agribusiness, agriculture, Asia, Asia dollar, aside, assassin, assault, assert, assertiveness training, assign, assignment, assist, assistance, assistant, assistant director, assistant manager, assistant purser, asymmetric design, asymmetry, contortionist, to instigate, to stir up). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | アゴラフォ"ア . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | aggle straiddey. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | agoraphobiaay agorafobia. (various references) agorafobie. (various references) боязнь пространства. (various references) strah od otvorenog prostora. (various references) agorafobia. (various references) agorafobi, torgskräck. (various references) alan korkusu, agorafobi. (various references) агорафобія. (various references) chứng sợ khoảng rộng. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | agora. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "agoraphobia": agoraphobias. (additional references) | |
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"Agoraphobia" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acoraphobia, agooraphobia, agorafobia, agoraphbia, agoraphobe, agorophobia, agrophobia. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-b-g-h-i-o-o-p-r" | |
-3 letters: agraphia. | |
-4 letters: agrapha, aphagia. | |
-5 letters: agapai, airbag, barhop, pariah, phobia, raphia. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-b-g-h-i-o-o-p-r" | |
+1 letter: agoraphobias. | |
+5 letters: autobiographical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 67 6F 72 61 70 68 6F 62 69 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- --. --- .-. .- .--. .... --- -... .. .- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01100111 01101111 01110010 01100001 01110000 01101000 01101111 01100010 01101001 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A g o r a p h o b i a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 0067 006F 0072 0061 0070 0068 006F 0062 0069 0061 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3573818467827481687567 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
