Meaning & use
monomania
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Meanings
noununcountabledisapproving
An all-consuming fixation on one idea, goal, or activity that pushes out everything else.
Grammar: Usually uncountable and negative: his monomania about the project.
Patterns
- monomania about something
- monomania for something
His monomania about collecting stamps left no time for friends.
The captain's monomania drove his crew toward disaster.
A monomania for winning ruined the coach's judgment.
noununcountableold-fashionedmedical
In older psychiatry, a mental disorder in which a person was thought to be unreasonable on a single subject only while thinking clearly about everything else.
Grammar: A historical term that doctors no longer use as a diagnosis.
Patterns
- suffer from monomania
Nineteenth-century doctors wrote about monomania as a distinct illness.
The character was described as suffering from monomania.
Courts once debated whether monomania excused a crime.
Word forms
| plural | monomanias |
|---|
Common combinations
- suffer from monomania
- The inventor seemed to suffer from monomania, talking only of his engine.
- bordering on monomania
- Her devotion to training was bordering on monomania.
- a touch of monomania
- A touch of monomania helped him finish the huge project.
- driven by monomania
- The captain, driven by monomania, pursued the whale across the ocean.
- monomania for
- He had a monomania for neatness.
Synonyms and how they differ
- obsession
- Obsession is the everyday word and can be mild, while monomania suggests an extreme, almost sickly fixation on a single thing.
- fixation
- Fixation often has a psychological flavor and can be passing, whereas monomania suggests a consuming, lasting grip.
- fanaticism
- Fanaticism is about extreme devotion to a cause or belief, while monomania can concern any single object, including a personal goal.
- mania
- Mania is wider and can mean wild excitement or craze, but monomania specifically stresses a single focus.
Opposites
Word family
- monomaniac noun
- a person with a monomania
- monomaniacal adjective
- obsessively focused on one thing
- monomaniacally adverb
- in a way that focuses obsessively on one thing
- mania noun
- an intense craze or excitement
Commonly confused: monomania or monotony?
monomania vs monotony
Monotony is boring sameness, whereas monomania is an intense fixation. The words share a prefix meaning one but have different meanings.
Practice
Captain Ahab's relentless hunt for a single whale is often described as _____.
Choose one answer.
Monomania means an obsessive fixation on one object or idea, which fits the captain. Monotony is dull sameness, a tempting lookalike.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “monomania”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.