OBSESSION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does obsession mean? 

• OBSESSION (noun)
  The noun OBSESSION has 2 senses:

1. an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will

2. an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone

  Familiarity information: OBSESSION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBSESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting goals

Synonyms:

compulsion; obsession

Context example:

her compulsion to wash her hands repeatedly

Hypernyms ("obsession" is a kind of...):

irrational motive (a motivation that is inconsistent with reason or logic)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "obsession"):

onomatomania (obsession with a particular word which the person uses repeatedly or which intrudes into consciousness)

Derivation:

obsessional (characterized by or constituting an obsession)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

fixation; obsession

Hypernyms ("obsession" is a kind of...):

preoccupation (an idea that preoccupies the mind and holds the attention)

Derivation:

obsess (haunt like a ghost; pursue)

obsess (be preoccupied with something)

obsessional (characterized by or constituting an obsession)

 Context examples 

If you have OCD, you have frequent, upsetting thoughts called obsessions.

(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

He was healthy and normal, ate regularly, slept long hours, and yet the growing little thing was becoming an obsession.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A disorder characterized by the presence of persistent and recurrent irrational thoughts (obsessions), resulting in marked anxiety and repetitive excessive behaviors (compulsions) as a way to try to decrease that anxiety.

(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Class of mental disorders milder than psychosis, including hysteria, fugue, obsession, phobia, etc.

(Neurosis, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

It is clear that getting your home situation just right has become a near-obsession, and if this resonates with you, your timing is ideal.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Always, as soon as he received his liberty, he fled away, and always he fled north. He was possessed of an obsession that drove him north. The homing instinct, Irvine called it, after he had expended the selling price of a sonnet in getting the animal back from northern Oregon.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Examples of obsessions are a fear of germs or a fear of being hurt.

(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)