hysteria

noun

hys·​te·​ria hi-ˈster-ē-ə  -ˈstir- 

1

: a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychogenic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral (see visceral sense 4) functions

2

: behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess

political hysteria

The plague had caused mass hysteria in the village.

Synonyms

• agitation
• deliriousness
• delirium
• distraction
• fever
• feverishness
• flap
• frenzy
• furor
• furore
• fury
• rage
• rampage
• uproar

Examples of hysteria in a Sentence

A few of the children began to scream, and soon they were all caught up in the hysteria.

Wartime hysteria led to many unfair accusations of treachery.

The spreading of the disease caused mass hysteria in the village.

Recent Examples on the Web

This lack of preparedness mirrors the COVID-19 hysteria and reactionary approach whereby lockdowns and mask mandates were instituted only after thousands of Americans had already been infected and hospitalized. —Omer Awan, Forbes, 6 Jan. 2025

At first, anti-Napster sentiment echoed the hysteria of the nineteen-seventies and eighties around the prospect of home taping killing the record industry. —Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024

But such incidents haven’t stopped Trump and others from continuing to whip up unfounded hysteria about some peculiar and presumably sinister drone fleet that the government refuses to explain. —Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 16 Dec. 2024

Paul McCartney's Life in Photos The fact that the Maysles spent so much film stock on these young women sets them apart from most other adults, who were all too happy to dismiss the whole thing as hormonal hysteria, no different than the silliness surrounding Elvis or Sinatra in prior decades. —Jordan Runtagh, People.com, 6 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus

First Known Use

1772, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

hysteria

noun

hys·​te·​ria his-ˈter-ē-ə  -ˈtir- 

1

: a nervous disorder marked by excitability of the emotions

2

: unmanageable fear or outburst of emotion

Medical Definition

hysteria

noun

hys·​te·​ria his-ˈter-ē-ə  -ˈtir- 

1

a

: a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions without an organic basis

b

: a similar condition in domestic animals

2

: behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess