claustrophobia
- 1Fear of being in enclosed, cramped places, such as small rooms, tunnels, or crowded elevators.
People who suffer from claustrophobia sometimes ask for an open scanner instead of a standard MRI machine.
A wave of claustrophobia hit him as the cave passage narrowed to a crawl.
Note
A clinician's term that crossed into everyday speech: its earliest recorded use is in the British Medical Journal, and it is built from Latin claustrum, "a shut-in place," from claudō, "I shut; I confine," plus -phobia. It is usually uncountable and takes measures of degree comfortably (people suffer from claustrophobia, or feel a tinge of it), so it can name a passing unease as readily as a clinical fear.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with claustrophobia, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.
Origin
From Latin claustrum ("a shut-in place"), which comes from claudō ("I shut, close; I imprison, confine"), combined with the suffix -phobia. The word was first recorded in the British Medical Journal.