Meaning & use
neurotic
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparableinformal
Overly anxious or worried, often about small things, in a way that is out of proportion.
Grammar: Can describe a person or their behavior: a neurotic habit, she is neurotic.
Patterns
- neurotic about something
He is so neurotic about being late that he arrives an hour early.
Her neurotic checking of the stove made leaving the house a chore.
My neurotic cat refuses to eat if the bowl is moved.
adjectivebefore a nounmedicalold-fashioned
Relating to or suffering from neurosis, an older name for a mild mental disorder involving anxiety.
Grammar: Appears in clinical or historical writing: neurotic disorder, neurotic symptoms.
Patterns
- neurotic disorder
Early psychologists wrote about neurotic patients who were not psychotic.
The article reviews the history of neurotic disorders.
Freud described neurotic symptoms as signs of hidden conflict.
nouncountableinformaldisapproving
A person who is anxious or obsessive in this way.
Grammar: Sounds blunt or rude when applied to a real person.
Patterns
- a neurotic
The film's hero is a charming neurotic who analyzes every conversation.
Calling her a neurotic hurt her feelings.
He jokes that he is a typical neurotic.
Word forms
| plural | neurotics |
|---|
Common combinations
- neurotic about
- She's neurotic about germs.
- slightly neurotic
- He is a slightly neurotic perfectionist.
- neurotic behavior
- Constant hand-washing is neurotic behavior in some cases.
- neurotic tendencies
- The novel's narrator shows neurotic tendencies from the first page.
- a neurotic mess
- Before the interview she was a neurotic mess.
Synonyms and how they differ
- anxious
- Anxious simply means worried and is neutral, whereas neurotic implies the worry is excessive.
- obsessive
- Obsessive stresses fixing on one thing, while neurotic stresses general nervous worry.
- paranoid
- Paranoid means unreasonably suspecting others, which is different from neurotic worry about oneself.
- highly strung
- Highly strung is a British expression for being easily upset and is a gentler, more casual choice.
Opposites
Word family
- neurosis noun
- a mild mental disorder marked by anxiety, in older usage
- neurotically adverb
- in an excessively anxious way
- neuroticism noun
- a personality trait of being prone to worry
- neurologist noun
- a doctor of the nervous system, a different field
Commonly confused: neurotic or neurological? neurotic or psychotic?
neurotic vs neurological
Neurological relates to the nervous system as a body part; neurotic relates to anxious behavior or feelings.
neurotic vs psychotic
Psychotic means losing touch with reality, which is far more serious than neurotic worry.
Practice
She is so ___ about her lists that she rewrites them three times a day.
Choose one answer.
Neurotic about something means excessively anxious about it. Neurological concerns the nervous system, narcotic is a drug, and nervy does not take about in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “neurotic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.