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
Esperanza Rising
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The Secret Life of Bees
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Stargirl
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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.
Obsessed with figuring out how things worked, he was an inveterate tinkerer.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026
Obsessed with mending his relationship with his daughters, Clooney's character drags his manager, played by Adam Sandler, and press agent, played by Laura Dern, on a trip to Europe.
From Barron's • Oct. 24, 2025
It was those sounds that opened her Glastonbury set, with the crunchy riffs of Obsessed, a self-mocking song about her jealousy; and the semi-autobiographical Diary Of A Homeschooled Girl.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2025
Kenny previously spoke about SpongeBob’s neurodivergence in 2012 on the “WTF” podcast, calling his character “a little autistic. Obsessed with his job, very hardworking, gets really really deep into something.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2024
Obsessed by the way it determined my public identity.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
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.
