Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of obsessed
Explanation
If you visit your grandmother and discover that she has collected so many clown dolls and clown paintings that her house is full of them, you may worry that she's become obsessed with clowns. An obsession with something is an unhealthy, extreme interest in it. When someone is obsessed, they've lost control of their feelings about the object of their obsession. The adjective obsessed is often used to simply mean "very interested," but when someone is truly obsessed, their interest has become compulsive, and they've begun to lose control over it. The Latin root is obsessus, or "besieged," and when you're obsessed, your mind has been besieged by uncontrollable thoughts of something.
Vocabulary lists containing obsessed
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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.
I’m obsessed with them all, both as a model for my future self and also the person I’d like to be right now—effortless, serene, perfect.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026
David Chase is obsessed with “The Twilight Zone.”
From Salon ● Oct. 10, 2026
He is obsessed with the cruelty and opportunism of the press, yet his writing spares no one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
"I've always been obsessed with planes," she added.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
Like an architectural historian obsessed with only one building, Lewis had been studying the construction of fruit flies for nearly two decades.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
