germophobia

noun

germ·​o·​pho·​bia ˌjər-mə-ˈfō-bē-ə 

variants or germaphobia

: abnormal fear of germs or contamination : mysophobia

Trump's well-known germophobia means he won't eat from a cookie packet that has already been opened.

—Daniel Politi

After several years of gains helped along by germaphobia, sales of household cleaning products rose less than 1.3% during the past year, …

—Tom Branna

Examples of germophobia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And his germophobia? —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 9 July 2022

Did the germophobia of 2020 constitute mass hysteria, or a rational response to the presence of a highly contagious virus? —Rebecca Panovka, Harper’s Magazine , 18 Jan. 2022

Not even the cooks wear gloves: this is a world without germophobia. —Sophie Pinkham, The New York Review of Books, 8 May 2020

Our cultural germophobia often precludes our ability to recognize the naturally transformative and symbiotic properties of microbes from the fermentation of grape juice into wine to their invaluable role in human digestion. —Anthony Martin, Discover Magazine, 26 Apr. 2016

Word History

First Known Use

1893, in the meaning defined above