hysteria

The definition of a hysteria is a craze or a state of extreme emotional excitement or upset.

(noun)

When everyone is in a panic about a potential upcoming storm, this is an example of a time when there is great hysteria about the storm.

See hysteria in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a psychiatric condition variously characterized by emotional excitability, excessive anxiety, sensory and motor disturbances, or the unconscious simulation of organic disorders, such as blindness, deafness, etc.
any outbreak of wild, uncontrolled excitement or feeling, such as fits of laughing and crying

Origin: ModL < hysteric + -ia

See hysteria in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.
A mental disorder characterized by emotional excitability and sometimes by amnesia or a physical deficit, such as paralysis, or a sensory deficit, without an organic cause.

Origin:

Origin: New Latin

Origin: : hyster(ic)

Origin: + -ia¹

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