noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A mental disorder, less severe than psychosis, marked by anxiety or fear which differ from normal measures by their intensity, which disorder results from a failure to compromise or properly adjust during the developmental stages of life, between normal human instinctual impulses and the demands of human society. countable, dated, uncountable

   "On inquiry it was found that this neurosis corresponded in time with the oncome of the catamenia."

2. 2
   a mental or personality disturbance not attributable to any known neurological or organic dysfunction wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

abuliaaccident neurosisanxiety hysteriaanxiety neurosisarteriosclerotic psychosisassociation neurosis

Antonyms

All antonyms

physioneurosis

Example

More examples

"As a result, he was diagnosed with insomnia and anxiety neurosis near the end of May."

Etymology

From neuro- + -sis.

Related phrases

accident neurosisactual neurosisanxiety neurosischaracter neurosiscompensation neurosis

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.