mottephobia

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noun

An irrational fear of moths or butterflies.

Similar
lepidopterophobia
OriginGerman Motte →
Scrabble 20
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Meanings

nounmottephobia (uncountable)
  1. uncountableAn irrational fear of moths or butterflies.

    Fear of flying moths (and less commonly butterflies) is a common phobia (mottephobia), though it is less widespread than fear of spiders (arachnophobia).

    2013, Whitney Cranshaw, Richard Redak, Bugs Rule!: An Introduction to the World of Insects, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 341
    2 more examples

    [> I quite liked the big butterflies but another member of staff freaked out and covered himself as much as he could head to toe, wearing his coat all of the time, it was very warm in there and were advised not to wear coats] Perhaps he suffers with *mottephobia* ...was his name Ron? :-))

    2004 October 29, Gareth, “Re: Butterfly farm...”, in free.uk.btinternet.chatter.refugees (Usenet)

    Mottephobia is the term used to describe the intense fear of moths and more in general of butterflies. […] In severe cases, panic attacks are triggered in mottephobia sufferers if they simply view a picture or even think of a moth. […] This study presents a novel augmented reality based environment for exposure therapy to mottephobia.

    2011, Andrea F. Abate, Michele Nappi, Stefano Ricciardi, “AR Based Environment for Exposure Therapy to Mottephobia”, in Randall Shumaker, editor, Virtual and Mixed Reality – New Trends: International Conference, Virtual and Mixed Reality 2011. Held as Part of HCI International 2011 […] Proceedings, Part I, Berlin: Springer, →DOI, →ISBN, pages 3–4

    Synonyms: lepidopterophobia

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAn irrational fear of moths or butterflies.

Similar
lepidopterophobia
Also see
lepidopterophobia

Origin

  1. GermanMotte“moth”
  2. Englishmottephobia

Probably from German Motte (“moth”) + -phobia.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

mottephobia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mottephobia

MLA

“mottephobia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mottephobia. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mottephobia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mottephobia.

Source: mottephobia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.