Skip to main content
neurosis

neurosis

11 8.3
A condition of feeling very worried or nervous without losing touch with reality
  • noun
  • /nʊˈroʊsɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : neurosis
  • The therapist explained that his client's neurosis stemmed from long-standing anxiety about public speaking.
  • traumatic neurosis
  • anxiety neurosis
  • patient's neurosis

Abandonment neurosis is how it can be translated.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • I myself witnessed some form of mass neurosis in East Proctor.

  • I have a patient in her 20s, typical anxiety neurosis.

  • One specifically noted that "sleep neurosis" was on the rise in the United States.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Was that part of her neurosis, that the whole world had to love her?

    Fiction book (1996)
  • We're gonna get you out of your neurosis.

  • Keep your neurosis to yourself until you can share it with a qualified mental health professional.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Do you think all neurosis is of exclusively sexual origin?

  • My question is on the role of neuroticism and neurosis in society, specifically in a toxic culture.

  • An obvious anxiety neurosis... and amnesia suppression.

  • They want a kind of vague conspiracy in which they can project their own little neuroses and problems.

Synonyms

psychoneurosis
vsneurosis
  • Archaic
9.9

A mild long-lasting mental problem that causes ongoing worry or sadness

is used for the same mild disorder without implying chronic ongoing distress

Antonyms

186 3.3

A person's thoughts, feelings and how they handle problems

Compounds

1 7.7

A long, strong worry that often causes fast heartbeat and sweating

1 9.9

A condition where a person has sudden strong emotions and temporary loss of movement or feeling

combat neurosis
  • Archaic
8.4

Strong emotional problems soldiers get after war that cause worry and bad dreams

A long-lasting feeling of being detached from yourself and from who you are, often with numb emotions

phobic neurosis
  • Archaic
9.4

A strong, unreasonable fear of a specific thing or situation that causes great worry

How Severe

psychosis
  • Specialized
52 8.7
neurosis
  • Specialized
11 8.3
anxiety
423 3.5
worry
290 1.0

Surface Forms

neurosis singular
neuroses plural

Morphology

neurosis = neuro (opaque) = neur + osis

The word is built from the combining form neuro- and the suffix -osis, but its modern medical meaning is not directly predictable from those parts for an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Neurosis comes from the Greek parts neuro- meaning 'nerve' and -osis meaning 'condition'. So, a neurosis is like a 'condition of the nerves' and today it means a mental or emotional trouble that does not make someone lose touch with reality.