monomania
Americannoun
-
(no longer in technical use) a psychosis characterized by thoughts confined to one idea or group of ideas.
-
an inordinate or obsessive zeal for or interest in a single thing, idea, subject, or the like.
noun
Other Word Forms
- monomaniac noun
- monomaniacal adjective
Etymology
Origin of monomania
Explanation
Someone who suffers from monomania is unhealthily preoccupied with something. If your sister talks about nothing but her collection of vintage lunch boxes, you could call it monomania. It's one thing to be excited about playing Scrabble or preoccupied with local politics, but when any interest gets out of hand, you can call it monomania. The word monomania, from the Greek mono, "one" and mania, "madness," was coined by a French psychiatrist in the early 1800s. One of the most famous literary cases of monomania is that of Captain Ahab, obsessed with his pursuit of Moby Dick.
Vocabulary lists containing monomania
It's Madness!: Mania
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The Time Machine
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Bleak House
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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.
Preda likens AI-induced psychosis to monomania, a state of fixation on certain ideas, which he described in a recent article.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 28, 2025
Menacing as Lockjaw can be chasing after Willa with a monomania that feels nearly Terminator-esque, he’s still as pitiful as hapless Pete.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 24, 2025
It turns out you can pay a lot for the privilege of real-time “re-enactments,” and he does, commissioning a series of increasingly elaborate set pieces whose pursuit soon curdles into monomania.
From New York Times • Jan. 13, 2024
But Schiff feels uneasy with his suspicious monomania that rejected any “peace and quiet” in governance.
From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2022
He could be generous and caring to a fault, but he had a darker side as well, characterized by monomania, impatience, and unwavering self-absorption, qualities that seemed to intensify through his college years.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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.
