infatuation
Americannoun
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the state of being infatuated.
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the act of infatuating.
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foolish or all-absorbing passion or an instance of this.
a mere infatuation that will not last.
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the object of a person's infatuation.
When I was a kid, my infatuation was stamp collecting.
noun
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the act of infatuating or state of being infatuated
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foolish or extravagant passion
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an object of foolish or extravagant passion
Usage
What does infatuation mean? Infatuation is the state of being infatuated—being absorbed with an extreme passion for someone or something, especially in a way that makes you foolish or unreasonable about it.Infatuation is often used to refer to the state of someone who has fallen in love with a person without really knowing them. But it can refer to any obsessive or passionate focus, such as on an activity or goal. A person who’s affected this way can be described as infatuated.The word infatuation can also refer to the object of this focus, as in Who’s that you’re staring at—your latest infatuation? Someone or something considered an infatuation can be described as infatuating.Much less commonly, infatuation can refer to the act of infatuating.Example: Your infatuation with him is clouding your judgment.
Etymology
Origin of infatuation
First recorded in 1640–50, infatuation is from the Late Latin word infatuātiōn- (stem of infatuātiō ). See infatuate, -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A not-so-closeted homosexual, he also waxes lyrical about his infatuation with a young Yale student, played by a bottle-blonde Margaret Qualley, and shares drinks with "Charlotte's Web" author E.B.
From Barron's • Feb. 27, 2026
Qian wrote poems about social responsibility, with lines such as: "We must love the elderly with the infatuation of a first romance."
From BBC • Nov. 10, 2025
It was only when I started writing and speaking about the joys of my AI coach that I began to see how my AI infatuation had affected my human relationships.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025
Almost exactly one month later, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, which immediately became one of the most used apps in the world and created a stock-market infatuation with artificial intelligence that still has barely cooled.
From Slate • May 28, 2025
Yet the infatuation preserves and satiates me in an indescribable way.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
