Definition of: hypochondria

(hī′pə·kon′drē·ə, hip′ə-) noun Psychiatry
1. A morbid melancholy and depression of mind or spirits.
2. A morbidly extreme anxiety about one's health, usually associated with one or another part of the body, and accompanied by imagined symptoms of illness. Also hy·po·chon·dri·a·sis (hī′·pō·kən·drī′ə·sis). [<L, abdomen (once taken to be the seat of this condition) <Gk. hypochondria, neut. plural from hypochondrios under the cartilage <hypo- under + chondros cartilage]