as in complainer
a person who is often or always worried about being ill
My brother is a real hypochondriac. Every time he reads about some new disease, he thinks he has it.
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hypochondriac
Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 8 Sep. 2025
Goosed along by Cliff Martinez’s ghostly electronic score, Soderbergh taps into our collective inner hypochondriac, making every character’s sniffle or rubbed eye bristle with potential danger.
—Tim Grierson, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025
Erik Morse, Vogue, 26 June 2025
The play’s hypochondriac paterfamilias Argan (Mark Linn-Baker) would benefit from more attention, too, though his doctors (Arnie Burton, in a variety of wigs) only see a fool.
—Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hypochondriac
Noun
Reviews were mixed at the time, but that deep-dive into the widening mental abyss of a hypochondriac playwright (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) has only grown in esteem over time.
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 8 Sep. 2025
Goosed along by Cliff Martinez’s ghostly electronic score, Soderbergh taps into our collective inner hypochondriac, making every character’s sniffle or rubbed eye bristle with potential danger.
—Tim Grierson, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025
Adjective
In the new film Hot Milk, the sensual but diffident 20-something Sofia (Emma Mackey) travels with her invalid mother, Rose (Fiona Shaw), to the Mediterranean shores of Spain in search of an experimental cure for the latter’s (possibly hypochondriac) illness.
—Erik Morse, Vogue, 26 June 2025
The play’s hypochondriac paterfamilias Argan (Mark Linn-Baker) would benefit from more attention, too, though his doctors (Arnie Burton, in a variety of wigs) only see a fool.
—Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 6 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hypochondriac
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hypochondriac
Noun
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The pervasive popularity of the show and its creator will be the reason the complainers have no voice.—
Rich Heldenfels,
Boston Herald,
22 Mar. 2026
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An energy vampire has bad body language, the complaining look on their face, the vocal complainer.—
Edgar Thompson,
The Orlando Sentinel,
8 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Her mother, Pattie (Alli Mauzey), is ludicrously hypochondriacal, as if atoning for the chromosomal accident that produced her quick-aging child.—
New York Times,
New York Times,
8 Dec. 2021
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Many women with myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune neuromuscular disease first named in 1877, were misdiagnosed as mentally unwell and dismissed as hypochondriacal well into the 20th century.—
Elinor Cleghorn,
WSJ,
12 June 2021
Adjective
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Shaw said the East Bay Paratransit program, which is responsible for assisting disabled residents within three-quarters of a mile from transit routes, receives 69% of its operational budget from AC Transit and 31% from BART.—
Chase Hunter,
Mercury News,
8 Apr. 2026
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Medicaid is the joint state and federal program that covers low-income and disabled adults.—
Katheryn Houghton,
NPR,
7 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hypochondriac.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hypochondriac. Accessed 14 Apr. 2026.
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