hysteria Hear it!

hysteria definition

hys·teria (hi ster′ē ə, -stir′-)

noun

  1. 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.
  2. any outbreak of wild, uncontrolled excitement or feeling, such as fits of laughing and crying

Etymology: ModL < hysteric + -ia

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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