idée fixe

noun

(ˌ)ē-ˌdā-ˈfēks How to pronounce idée fixe (audio)
Definition of idée fixenext
as in obsession
something about which one is constantly thinking or concerned had this bizarre idée fixe that people were spying on her with electromagnetic waves

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of idée fixe This is perhaps why their partnership remains an idee fixe so many decades later. — Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idée fixe
  1. obsession
  2. fetish
  3. fixation
  4. fascination
Noun
  • One student told Leahy that the problem wasn’t decadence but an obsession with achievement and perfection.
    — Deputy Managing Editor, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2026
  • Chalk it up to a collective spice and condiment obsession, which grows more nuanced by the day.
    — Maggie Hennessy, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of obsession
Noun
  • Tupper’s Mick, at the mercy of his brittle fetishes, may be the most believable of this quartet.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2026
  • The screen is big, the image is sharp and bright, but Nolan’s visual compositions are dull—just pictures of actors acting, without style or poetry—and his fetish for size is just bombast and vanity.
    — Caroline Mimbs Nyce, New Yorker, 17 July 2026
Definition of fetish
Noun
  • Seemingly, the only thing that could slow down the automobile takeover was diminishing fuel supplies, fear of which had become a fixation of American oil companies and government officials after the Armistice.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The sisters become the fixation of a forklift-driving mouth breather (John Connors) and are photographed while undressing by a neighbor (Malcolm Adams) who climbs up on the roof across the street to spy on them.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of fixation
Noun
  • The film grew out of Herzog’s fascination with British twins Freda and Greta Chaplin, who became tabloid fodder in the 1980s after a neighbor was granted a restraining order against them.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026
  • On the one hand, there’s a fascination with collective joy and the forms of vernacular invention that aspire to it; on the other, there’s an underlying melancholy that points to the inevitability of isolation, an epistemology of loneliness.
    — Pablo Larios, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026
Definition of fascination

Browse Nearby Words

ideational
idée fixe
idées fixes
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Cite this Entry

“Idée fixe.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/id%C3%A9e%20fixe. Accessed 7 Sep. 2026.

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