neophobia

N1E1O1P3H4O1B3I1A1
UK/niːəˈfəʊbɪə/

noun

The fear or hatred of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations.

Opposite
Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounneophobia (countable and uncountable, plural neophobias)

plural neophobias

  1. countableuncountableThe fear or hatred of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations.

    [T]he murdering of Mormons and the massacring of Armenians, express much rather that aboriginal human neophobia, […] than they express the positive piety of the various perpetrators.

    1902, William James, “Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 338
    2 more examples

    In response to the other July/August request, for a word to describe a "fear of inadvertently throwing something valuable out with the garbage," many, many phobias arrived. Evidently the readers who sent them in suffer from neither doxophobia (fear of expressing opinions) nor neophobia (fear of anything new or novel), and some would even seem to be remarkably free of catagelophobia (fear of being ridiculed).

    2001 December 28, Barbara Wallraff, “Word Fugitives”, in Michael Kelly, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2013

    Between 6 and 12 months, babies are more open to new foods — and new experiences — than they will be later on as toddlers, when a certain amount of “neophobia” or “new means no” is developmentally normal, Ms. Lipner said. “Normal kids transition through a normal pickiness phase,” around 18 months, she said, when “they’re also learning autonomy and control.”

    2018 June 4, Perri Klass, M.D., “When New Means No: Picky Eating as a Normal Toddler Phase”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 21 Aug 2018

    Synonyms: cainophobia, cainotophobia, misoneism, traditionalism · Antonyms: neophilia

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe fear or hatred of novelty, new things, innovation, or unfamiliar places or situations.

Opposite

Origin

Translations

Dutch neofobie
  • neofobiefear of new things
French néophobie
  • néophobiefear of new things
German Neophobie
  • Neophobiefear of new things
Italian neofobia
  • neofobiafear of new things
Japanese 新奇恐怖症
  • 新奇恐怖症 (shinki kyōfushō)fear of new things
Portuguese neofobia
  • neofobiafear of new things
Romanian neofobie
  • neofobiefear of new things
Spanish neofobia
  • neofobiafear of new things
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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