Select the option that can be used as a one-word substitute for the given group of words. Fear of snakes

Correct — B. Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes — option (b).

The root is Greek ophis, snake, which also gives ophidian, the zoological adjective for snakes. Attach -phobia, fear, and the compound reads 'fear of snakes' directly.

Every option here ends in -phobia, so the ending decides nothing. The whole item turns on which root names the thing feared, and only one of the four points at an animal.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Claustrophobia — Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces, from Latin claustrum, a bolt or a closed place. It names confinement, not any creature.
• (c)
  Xenophobia — Xenophobia is fear or dislike of foreigners and strangers, from Greek xenos, stranger. The object of the fear is people.
• (d)
  Syngenesophobia — Syngenesophobia is listed as a fear of relatives, from Greek syngenes, kin. Nothing in that root points at snakes.

A -phobia word is a compound: a Greek or Latin root for the thing feared, plus -phobia, fear. Learn the root and the word decodes itself.

hydro- water, acro- heights, claustro- enclosure, xeno- stranger, agora- open or public places, ophidio- snake.

One-word substitution rewards this because the examiner can make four options look identical at the tail while their heads mean entirely different things. Read the first half of the word, never the last.

Key facts

• Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes, from Greek ophis, snake.
• Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces.
• Xenophobia is fear or dislike of strangers or foreigners, from Greek xenos.
• Acrophobia is the fear of heights, from Greek akron, summit.

Common traps

• Defaulting to claustrophobia, the phobia word that comes to mind first, without checking its root.
• Confusing ophidiophobia with ornithophobia, the fear of birds, since both openings look alike at speed.
• Reading xenophobia as a general fear of the unknown rather than of strangers.

No directly related past PYQ was found.