nomophobia

Sometimes smart·phone anx·i·e·ty

[noh-muh-foh-bee-uh]

noun

Psychology.

1. anxiety caused by being without access to a functioning mobile phone.

   One contributor to our nomophobia is the reliance we have on our phones for creating, storing, and sharing personal memories.

Other Word Forms

• nomophobic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of nomophobia¹

First recorded in 2005–10; no ¹ ( def. ) + mo(bile) ( def. ) + phobia ( def. )

Example Sentences

Coined in 2009, nomophobia is short for “no mobile phone phobia,” an irrational fear of not having your phone.

Read more on Washington Post

We probably didn’t need a study of 495 Portuguese young adults to confirm that “nomophobia” is a real thing - you know, the anxiety that accompanies a missing or dead smart phone.

Read more on Washington Times

A somewhat ungainly word came into being a decade ago: nomophobia — short for no mobile phone phobia — meaning a fear of being without one’s phone, or at least without juice or network coverage.

Read more on New York Times

They’ve been so successful that there’s even a term for fear of being without your cell phone, “nomophobia.”

Read more on Scientific American

As Cambridge explains, the fact that nomophobia was the chosen word indicates that readers are familiar with it, or at the very least, can relate to it.

Read more on Salon