Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974).
Source: wiktionary
Catastrophize
//kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz//
Synonyms for "catastrophize" (1 found)
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Closest matches (1)
Verb(1 words)
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5 entriesderived
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3 entriesSample sentences
4 total sentences available.
Another way to catastrophize is to jump to an extreme conclusion from an unimportant or irrelevant event.
Source: wiktionary
[I]ndividuals who catastrophized reported worse health-related quality of life, higher psychological distress, and perceived more somatic symptoms, worse consequences, and more severe emotional impact as compared to those participants who did not catastrophize.
Source: wiktionary
“The Great Feminization” catastrophizes wildly about the future, presumably because what’s happening in the present utterly undermines its central thesis.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.