variants
also fetiches
1
as in obsessions
something about which one is constantly thinking or concerned
dieting seems to be a fetish with some people
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in talismans
something worn or kept to bring good luck or keep away evil
an archaeologist discovering an old animal tooth that may have been worn as a fetish
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 fetishes
The titillating drama explores the complexities of dominant-submissive relationships and fetishes, as Ray gets aroused by making Colin lick his boots, buy his groceries and sleep at the foot of his bed.
—
Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 6 Oct. 2025
Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 6 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fetishes
Noun
-
Look to the other jewelry obsessions prevailing during the fall 2025 season.—
Stacia Datskovska,
Footwear News,
13 Oct. 2025
-
What affected me most in Lahiri’s story was the sense of time passing, the way our obsessions seem meaningless in the aftermath of tragic events (or, rather, from the larger vantage point of a life).—
Cressida Leyshon,
New Yorker,
12 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
The pieces extending the collection kept spotlighting the boldness of gold and playing with talismans centered on key themes of the brand, such as the evil eye symbol abounding on necklaces and minimal earrings and rings nodding to the shape of the snake.—
Sandra Salibian,
Footwear News,
10 Oct. 2025
-
To explain these distortions, experts speculate that the figures served as fertility talismans—designed to maximize those parts of the body that evolution has encoded us to see as signs of optimal child-bearers.—
Harmon Siegel,
Artforum,
1 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Presenting Linda with two open wounds—one in the ceiling, and one in her child’s flesh—the film suggests, with sly wit and bristling optimism, that the solutions to both problems might be one and the same.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
9 Oct. 2025
-
While other people were asking about promotions, titles, and raises, Burns was taking on the problems nobody else wanted to solve.—
Kimberly Wilson,
Essence,
9 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
And he got hurt — because eventually, nearly all high-level mascots do.—
Scott Fowler,
Charlotte Observer,
9 Oct. 2025
-
The mascots will be a little different for England’s game against Wales today.—
Nick Miller,
New York Times,
9 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Tim Robinson, who so often plays men consumed by petty fixations or compelled to take things too far, has his own fixations.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
9 Oct. 2025
-
The world Maddie lives in is populated by eccentric characters who wear their respective fixations on their sleeve.—
Jourdain Searles,
HollywoodReporter,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Brides in South Asia are famously decked out in the precious metal – necklaces, earrings, nose rings, hair pieces and amulets – that can be gifted or inherited.—
Ramishah Maruf,
CNN Money,
8 Oct. 2025
-
Natron bubbling out of pale saline lakes in the Wadi Natron (west of the Nile) was used in making the blue glaze faience for amulets such as Taweret’s and the scarab beetles such as those produced in a delta factory.—
Vanessa Taylor,
Big Think,
25 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
But these names, which signal both over-the-top satire and dramatization of extreme politics, are some of the small nods and Easter Eggs that Anderson includes in his script for One Battle After Another, which distill the preoccupations of novelist Thomas Pynchon.—
Kevin Dolak,
HollywoodReporter,
6 Oct. 2025
-
In a cheeky aside directed at Sony Pictures Classics co-head Micheal Barker who was at the dinner, Quinn recalled how one of his preoccupations at Samuel Goldwyn had been figuring out what titles their rivals were getting access to.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
30 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
The next phase of crypto's growth won't revolve around sleek marketing or speculative manias.—
Annabelle Huang,
MSNBC Newsweek,
24 Sep. 2025
-
The reality is that the global network has become a transmission mechanism for all kinds of manias and panics, just as the combination of printing and literacy temporarily increased the prevalence of millenarian sects and witch crazes.—
Niall Ferguson,
Foreign Affairs,
15 Aug. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Fetishes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fetishes. Accessed 17 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share