Meanings
- uncountableThe irrational fear of guns.
You'll be happy to learn that "hoplophobia" (irrational fear of weapons) has been recognized as an illness by the AMA, is treatable, and is now covered by most HMOs. Get thee to a psychiatrist!
1999, Barry B Wood, dfw.general (Usenet)2 more examples
Gun control laws are proposed to control three basic areas: Crime, accidental shootings, and to calm those suffering from hoplophobia — these people generally align themselves with the first two so I won’t even consider that category.
1979: United States House of Representatives: Firearms Legislation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Crime of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session, Part 7, page 2529That the [New York] Times's gun-control crusade is motivated by hoplophobia, rather than a sincere concern about crime and terrorism, can be demonstrated by a comparison with other Times editorials that do not focus on guns.
2015 December 7, James Taranto, “The Left Loses Control”, in The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 15 Jan 2016
Origin
Firearms authority and writer Colonel Jeff Cooper claims to have coined the word in 1962: hoplo- (“weapon, arms”) + -phobia (“fear”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hoplophobia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoplophobia
“hoplophobia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoplophobia. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hoplophobia,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hoplophobia.
Source: hoplophobia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.