Adverbophobia
noun, slang ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An excessive aversion to the use of adverbs, especially in writing literature. humorous, informal, sometimes, uncountable
"For some reason when I compare King to a living Shakespeare people think I'm joking, or that I'm wrong, but I truly believe this. […] Stephen King's biggest fear is adverbs. He irrationally hates them. So much so that the preceding sentence just made him cringe. And I think it makes his work wonderful to read. […] When it comes down to it, even if the Constant Reader doesn't know why, King has always had a very distinctive voice. I posit that his voice is the direct result of his aversion to adverbs. It may not be just because it's unnatural (people speak with adverbs...Constantly). In fact, I don't think it's that at all, as I think King's dialogue is known for sounding incredibly natural. I think it's because an aversion to adverbs makes it so that you need to review your writing. Closely. And frequently. And repetitively. And it makes it so your writing is so tight that there are no mistakes at all."
Example
More examples"For some reason when I compare King to a living Shakespeare people think I'm joking, or that I'm wrong, but I truly believe this. […] Stephen King's biggest fear is adverbs. He irrationally hates them. So much so that the preceding sentence just made him cringe. And I think it makes his work wonderful to read. […] When it comes down to it, even if the Constant Reader doesn't know why, King has always had a very distinctive voice. I posit that his voice is the direct result of his aversion to adverbs. It may not be just because it's unnatural (people speak with adverbs...Constantly). In fact, I don't think it's that at all, as I think King's dialogue is known for sounding incredibly natural. I think it's because an aversion to adverbs makes it so that you need to review your writing. Closely. And frequently. And repetitively. And it makes it so your writing is so tight that there are no mistakes at all."
Etymology
From adverb + -o- + -phobia. Rare before the 21st century.
More for "adverbophobia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.