obsessed

adjective

ob·​sessed əb-ˈsest 

äb-

: preoccupied with or haunted by some idea, interest, etc. : being in a state of obsession

This was because on vacations my father was a man obsessed.

—Bill Bryson

Gatsby the obsessed lover, erecting an empire and stringing it with lights to impress a girl …

—Claudia Roth Pierpont

She was at once obsessed with being a good person and brutal to the people who worked for her.

—Rachel Abramowitz

But it seems we're becoming so obsessed with healthy eating, we are embarking on up to three different diets a year.

—Unity Blott

—sometimes used in combination

a sports-obsessed teenager

obsessedly

əb-ˈse-səd-lē 

-ˈsest-lē

äb-

adverb

"He wants her to be free of him and she doesn't know that she is obsessedly in love with him."

—Anthony Hopkins

Synonyms

• worried
• concerned
• preoccupied
• happy
• anxious

Examples of obsessed in a Sentence

the youngster was so obsessed with video games that he had little interest in playing outside

Recent Examples on the Web

Music fans remain obsessed with how the site rates their favorites, and artists have Pitchfork on their mind too. —Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 17 Oct. 2025

Prom Night Three years after an obsessed teacher killed her family, Donna Keppel has gotten her life back together enough to attend her Senior Prom. —Caitlin White, Variety, 3 Oct. 2025

Why are the internet’s pop fans so obsessed? —Anna Gaca, Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2025

But the irony is that the fictional worlds I was most obsessed with had no place for me either. —Literary Hub, 24 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of obsess

First Known Use

1888, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing obsessed

• self-obsessed

Rhymes for obsessed

• acquiesced
• coalesced
• dispossessed
• manifest
• overdressed
• overstressed
• prepossessed
• reassessed
• reinvest
• repossessed
• unaddressed
• uncompressed