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

For centuries, medicine viewed shaking as a symptom of hysteria; spasms and fits as evidence of delirium. —Rachel Sherman Lanna Apisukh, New York Times, 13 Nov. 2023

In short, the Tramp was an Everyman, and his creator became, to his not completely happy surprise, an object of fan hysteria on a par with Rudolph Valentino. —Louis Menand, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023

James Robenalt sets out to analyze the bullet’s significance in a clinical manner, with his lack of hysteria and careful analysis making up for his somewhat dry approach. —Carolyn Wells, Longreads, 15 Sep. 2023

Heatherwick’s contribution to this long saga of opprobrium is a tone of quiet hysteria mixed with patient explanation. —Justin Davidson, Curbed, 23 Oct. 2023

Everyone exhausted but elated and hysteria is only like a second away. —Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, 11 Oct. 2023

Profs and Pints: Early American Witch Hunts at Crooked Run Explore the colonial hysteria that led to the Salem witch hunts in a lecture by Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland, at Sterling’s Crooked Run Fermentation. —Adele Chapin, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2023

In the 1920s, xenophobic anxieties and hysteria surrounding rising numbers of immigrants entering the country were mounting across the U.S. —Cat Cardenas, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2023

Charcot believed that hysteria was a hereditary neurological condition—a state akin to a hypnotic trance that caused epileptic episodes and delirium. —Hannah Zeavin, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2023

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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

hysterical

-ˈter-i-kəl 

adjective

hysterically

-i-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

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