déjà vu

noun

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dé·jà vu | \ ˌdā-ˌzhä-ˈvü

, -ˈvᵫ

Definition of déjà vu

1a : the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time

b : a feeling that one has seen or heard something before Despite a blond, swept-back mane all his own, Fonda looks startlingly like his father, Henry … . He even moves like his father, only dispelling the eerie feeling of déjà vu when he opens his mouth.— Peter Biskind

2 : something overly or unpleasantly familiar The team's poor start to the season was déjà vu for its long-suffering fans.

Examples of déjà vu in a Sentence

I entered the room and immediately felt a sense of déjà vu. When the car broke down again, it was déjà vu. The rise in housing costs is déjà vu all over again.

Recent Examples on the Web Watching Belle play with her dogs and refuse to stay still for a Zoom interview brings a wave of deja vu for Anderson. — Washington Post, 11 Apr. 2022 François Ozon must be experiencing a sense of Berlin deja vu. — Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Feb. 2022 Instead, her 2022 State of the City speech Tuesday night felt a bit like deja vu. — Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Jan. 2022 For many experts, the ivermectin craze is stirring feelings of pandemic deja vu. — Allyson Chiu, Anchorage Daily News, 10 Sep. 2021 As the Omicron variant continues, parents are faced with painful deja vu: toggling between virtual and in-person schooling and trying to keep up with evolving district policies. — Laura Blasey, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2022 Everybody else may simply feel a strange sense of deja vu. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 17 Feb. 2022 Dining at Good Good Culture Club gave me a strong sense of deja vu. — Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 14 Feb. 2022 The jeans in question come in three shades: driftwood, deja vu, and Venus, and the sizes are still pretty well stocked, but that won’t last! — Kristen Philipkoski, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'déjà vu.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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