In common usage, they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject (e.g. homophobia).
In some cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, of notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.
Many -phobia lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other.
The suffix -phobia is used to coin terms that denote a particular anti-ethnic or anti-demographic sentiment, such as Americanophobia, Europhobia, Francophobia, Hispanophobia, and Indophobia.
In the natural sciences, words with the suffix -phobia/-phobic generally describe a predisposition for avoidance and/or exclusion.