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This phobia trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the fears people actually have and the strange names psychologists and internet forums have given them: spiders, heights, clowns, needles, the number 13, being without your phone, and the famously long word for the fear of long words. Alongside the vocabulary you will find the science: how the DSM classifies specific phobias, why blood phobia makes people faint when other fears do not, the Little Albert experiment, exposure therapy, and the god Phobos who gave fear its name. It works for a Halloween quiz, a psychology classroom warm-up or a pub round where everyone thinks they know what claustrophobia means. Questions run from easy household words to expert-level etymology. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and clinical sources before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Arachnophobia is the fear of which creatures?
Spiders
It is among the most common phobias, affecting an estimated 3.5 to 6.1% of people, and it lent its name to a 1990 Steven Spielberg-produced 'thrill-omedy'.
Q 02Acrophobia is the fear of what?
Heights
Along with spiders and snakes, it is one of the three most common specific phobias.
Q 03Coulrophobia is the fear of what?
Clowns
The word only appeared in the late 1980s or 1990s; a 2022 study found 54% of respondents felt at least some degree of it.
Q 04The 'coulro-' in coulrophobia comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Stilt-walker
Ancient Greek had no clowns as such, so the coiners borrowed kolobathristes; Oxford Dictionaries only added the word in 2010.
Q 05Someone with claustrophobia fears what?
Confined spaces
The word comes from the Latin claustrum, 'a shut-in place'; crowded lifts and MRI scanners are classic triggers.
Q 06Agoraphobia takes its name from the Greek word for what?
The marketplace
German psychologist Carl Westphal named it in 1871; it affects about 1.7% of adults, women twice as often as men.
Q 07Which condition is described by the word glossophobia?
Dread of public speaking
Glossa is Greek for tongue; one US university study found 64% of students admitted to the fear.
Q 08Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of which number?
Thirteen
A 2002 Otis Elevator review found 85% of its tall buildings had no floor labelled 13; the fear of Friday the 13th is paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Q 09Tetraphobia, common in East Asia, is the fear of which number?
Four
In several East Asian languages the word for four sounds like the word for death.
Q 10Trypophobia is an aversion to what?
Clusters of small holes
Lotus seed pods and honeycomb are classic triggers; the word was coined on an internet forum in 2005 and is not in the DSM-5.
Q 11Nomophobia, first named in a 2008 UK survey, is the fear of what?
Being without your mobile phone
It is a squashed form of 'no mobile phone phobia'; the Post Office study found 53% of users got anxious when their phone died or lost signal.
Q 12Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the tongue-in-cheek name for the fear of what?
Long words
It is built from Horace's phrase sesquipedalia verba, 'words a foot and a half long', with hippopotamus and monster bolted on for effect.
Q 13Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of what?
Peanut butter stuck to the roof of the mouth
Q 21Mysophobia is the fear of what?
Germs and dirt
Mysos is Greek for uncleanness; sufferers are sometimes described as germophobes.
Q 22Gephyrophobia is the fear of crossing what?
Bridges
Some long US bridges offer a driver service for sufferers; gephyra is Greek for bridge.
Q 23Which phobia is the fear of buttons on clothing?
Koumpounophobia
Koumpi is modern Greek for button; Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is often cited as a sufferer.
Q 24Anatidaephobia, the 'fear that somewhere a duck is watching you', comes from where?
The name borrows arachis, the Latin genus name for the peanut, and butyrum, Latin for butter.
Q 14Which phobia is the fear of beards?
Pogonophobia
Pogon is Greek for beard; genuphobia, by contrast, is the fear of knees.
Q 15Ophidiophobia is the fear of which animals?
Snakes
About a third of adults report it, and Indiana Jones is the fictional world's best-known sufferer.
Q 16Cynophobia is the fear of which animals?
Dogs
The word shares its root with 'canine' via Greek kyon; the fear of cats is ailurophobia.
Q 17Musophobia is the fear of what?
Mice and rats
Mus is Latin for mouse; entomophobia is the equivalent fear of insects.
Q 18Which phobia is the fear of the sea or of being in the ocean?
Thalassophobia
Thalassa is Greek for sea; hydrophobia is an old name for rabies rather than a simple fear of water.
Q 19Nyctophobia is a severe fear of what?
Night and darkness
Fear of the dark rarely appears before age two and peaks around age four; nyx is Greek for night.
Q 20Emetophobia is the fear of what?
Vomiting
The root is the same Greek word behind 'emetic', a substance that makes you sick.
A Far Side cartoon by Gary Larson
It is a joke phobia, though Anatidae really is the family name of ducks, geese and swans.
Q 25Which fear is described by phasmophobia?
Ghosts
Phasma is Greek for apparition; the word also gave its name to a popular co-op horror video game.
Q 26Ergophobia is the fear of what?
Work
The same Greek root, ergon, gives us 'ergonomics' and the energy unit 'erg'.
Q 27Which condition is described by phobophobia?
Dread of dread itself
Franklin Roosevelt's 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself' is its unofficial motto.
Q 28Globophobia is the fear of what?
Balloons
The fear of the popping sound is usually the real trigger; Oprah Winfrey has spoken about having it.
Q 29Which phobia is the fear of trains and railways?
Siderodromophobia
It literally means 'fear of iron roads', from the Greek sideros (iron) and dromos (course).
Q 30Alektorophobia is the fear of which farm animals?
Chickens
Alektor is Greek for rooster; sufferers can react to feathers and eggs as well as live birds.