paranoia
noun /ˌpærəˈnɔɪə/
/ˌpærəˈnɔɪə/
[uncountable]- (medical) a mental illness in which a person wrongly believes that other people are trying to harm them, that they are somebody very important, etc.
- The drugs can induce paranoia.
Wordfinder- anorexia
- autism
- bipolar disorder
- condition
- dementia
- depression
- paranoia
- psychosis
- schizophrenia
Extra ExamplesTopics Illnessc2- He was gripped by paranoia.
- Her passion for cleanliness borders on paranoia.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- rampant
- extreme
- severe
- …
- suffer from
- border on
- verge on
- …
- kick in
- set in
- grip somebody
- …
- (informal) fear of other people when there is no evidence or reason for thisExtra ExamplesTopics Feelingsc2
- External threats will just fuel paranoia among those in power.
- I was guilty perhaps of mild paranoia.
- The paranoia is setting in.
- The regime is in the grip of severe paranoia.
- the anti-communist paranoia of the 1950s
- his paranoia that people might find out
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- rampant
- extreme
- severe
- …
- suffer from
- border on
- verge on
- …
- kick in
- set in
- grip somebody
- …
Word Originearly 19th cent.: modern Latin, from Greek, from paranoos ‘distracted’, from para ‘irregular’ + noos ‘mind’.