Agency Dictionary
comfort zone
nounPronunciation: /ˈkʌm.fərt zoʊn/
In Portuguese: zona de conforto
Psychology & MindWhat does “comfort zone” mean?
The set of situations and habits in which a person feels safe and in control, without risk or anxiety. Leaving it is commonly described as a condition for learning and growth.
Etymology
A compound of comfort, from Old French confort, from Late Latin confortare, "to strengthen", and zone, from Latin zona, from Greek zone, "belt". Dictionaries date the expression to the 1920s, when it named the range of temperature in which people feel neither hot nor cold. The figurative sense, the range of situations in which a person feels at ease, spread in the last decades of the 20th century through management and self-help writing.
Usage note
Nearly always used with a verb of leaving: to step out of, leave or push beyond one's comfort zone. It is a stock phrase of coaching and self-help language.
Word family
- comfort
- comfortable
- comfortably
- discomfort
Rhymes with
- bone
- stone
- phone
- alone
- tone
- known
- throne
- loan
Usage examples
this knot that tends to hinder the necessary step to be taken out of the comfort zone
Writing.2 - Aphorisms
Concept
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.
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