obsession

American  

[uhb-sesh-uhn] / əbˈsɛʃ ən /

noun

• obsessions
  plural

1. the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

2. the idea, image, desire, feeling, etc., itself.

3. the state of being obsessed.

4. the act of obsessing.

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obsession British  

/ əbˈsɛʃən /

noun

1. psychiatry a persistent idea or impulse that continually forces its way into consciousness, often associated with anxiety and mental illness

2. a persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling

3. the act of obsessing or the state of being obsessed

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obsession Cultural  

1. A preoccupation with a feeling or idea. In psychology, an obsession is similar to a compulsion.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonobsession
  noun
• self-obsession
  noun
• nonobsessional
  adjective
• obsessional
  adjective
• obsessionally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• obsessions
  plural

Etymology

Origin of obsession

First recorded in 1505–15; from Latin obsessiōn-, stem of obsessiō “blockade, siege,” from obsess(us) “occupied, besieged” (past participle of obsidēre “to occupy, besiege”; see obsess) + -iō -ion

Explanation

If you have an obsession, you're totally fixated on something and unhealthily devoted to it. Some common obsessions include fantasy football leagues, celebrity gossip, and Elvis memorabilia. Obsession is kind of like a passion for something that crosses the line into crazy territory. Sometimes people get so preoccupied with their obsessions that it makes them anxious or emotionally unstable. If you have an obsession with the Yankees, for example, you might go to every single game, skip work to watch spring training, paper your room with Yankees posters, and write love notes to Derek Jeter.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

obsession obsessions

On top of that, the cultural obsession with efficiency doesn’t align with a diet that views cooking as a nourishing daily ritual.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026

The good doctor exercised his Fifth Amendment rights in response to most questions, correctly pointing out that Paul has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.”

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026

Like that film, the new one is an interesting if decidedly uneven work about pop-cultural obsession as an outlet for the more personal and tormented explorations of the protagonist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Despite his love of animals and a high school obsession with making Super 8 film, Goode was not, for much of his life, a likely candidate to be directing these documentaries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

This small world of investors who made big bets against subprime mortgage bonds itself contained an even smaller world: people for whom the trade became an obsession.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

This isn’t all that uncommon: Trends crop up in filmmaking all the time, as potential narratives emerge from real-life events and cultural obsessions.

From Salon ● May 25, 2026

This time the obsessions had the opposite effect.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026

Mr. Armitage’s resplendent translation, proceeding with nerve, wisdom and necessary audacity, proves that literature does not progress so much as deepen, circling the same obsessions with ever-renewed urgency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

None of these three big investor obsessions is having a meaningful positive impact on Tesla’s financials.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 1, 2026

But researchers are apt to lose sight of whom they are writing for, and narcissistically describe the obsessions of their guild rather than what the audience really wants to know.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Related Words

• compulsion
• delusion
• enthusiasm
• fascination
• infatuation
• mania
• passion
• phobia
• preoccupation