hysteria

[hi-ster-ee-uh, -steer-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hysteria ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.

Psychoanalysis. a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions, and various abnormal effects due to autosuggestion.

Psychiatry. conversion disorder.

Compare mass hysteria.

Origin of hysteria

First recorded in 1795–1805; hyster(ic) + -ia

Related formssub·hys·te·ri·a, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hysteria

nervousness, madness, agitation, excitement, frenzy, delirium, panic, mirth, hysterics, unreason

Examples from the Web for hysteria

Contemporary Examples of hysteria

At the time, before ISIS had conquered Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, the attack evoked outrage but not hysteria.
French Jihadi Mehdi Nemmouche Is the Shape of Terror to Come
Christopher Dickey
September 9, 2014
But this time I can plainly hear, through the rush of words, the faint rattle of hysteria that bespeaks a screw loose somewhere.
The Stacks: Grateful Dead I Have Known
Ed McClanahan
August 30, 2014
There was no instruction, no direction—there was an overwhelming stampede and hysteria.
I Survived a Deadly Shipwreck: Costa Concordia Passengers Tell Their Stories
Barbie Latza Nadeau
May 19, 2014
Even for Daniel Radcliffe, the rumor mill has reached Elevatorgate-levels of hysteria.
Daniel Radcliffe Says No More ‘Harry Potter.’ (He’s Not Engaged, Either.)
Marlow Stern
May 16, 2014
I thought this was an appropriate observation and still do, despite the hysteria my saying so has ignited on the right.
My Benghazi Scandal
Eleanor Clift
May 15, 2014

Historical Examples of hysteria

By evening Mrs. Page had worked herself into a state bordering on hysteria.
K
Mary Roberts Rinehart
And she ran off, sobbing, into the little guignol, where she had an attack of hysteria.
My Double Life
Sarah Bernhardt
It is often also due to hysteria and consequently pathological.
The Sexual Question
August Forel
Mrs. Wilcox had been overtired by the shopping, and was inclined to hysteria.
Howards End
E. M. Forster
In short, you think what I saw was merely the result of woman's hysteria?
A Son of Hagar
Sir Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for hysteria

hysteria

noun

a mental disorder characterized by emotional outbursts, susceptibility to autosuggestion, and, often, symptoms such as paralysis that mimic the effects of physical disordersSee also conversion disorder

any frenzied emotional state, esp of laughter or crying

Word Origin for hysteria

C19: from New Latin, from Latin hystericus hysteric

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hysteria

1801, coined in medical Latin as an abstract noun from hysteric (see hysterical).

hysteria in Medicine

hysteria

[hĭ-stĕr′ē-ə, -stîr′-]

n.

A psychiatric disorder characterized by the presentation of a physical ailment without an organic cause.

Excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear.

Related formshys•ter′ic (hĭ-stĕr′ĭk) null adj.

hysteria in Culture

hysteria

A complex neurosis in which psychological conflict is turned into physical symptoms, such as amnesia, blindness, and paralysis, that have no underlying physical cause. Early in his career, Sigmund Freud worked on hysteria.