as in obsession
something about which one is constantly thinking or concerned
the future entomologist's preoccupation with insects from a very early age
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Recent Examples of preoccupation
Immigration raids While health agencies were quiet, Trump officials were making plenty of noise about immigration enforcement, Trump's signature campaign promise and a major preoccupation of the new administration.
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Zac Anderson, USA TODAY, 25 Jan. 2025
The lazy tendency of many historical films is to put people with modern frameworks and preoccupations into period garb, telling stories that make sense to contemporary audiences.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2024
More recently,Maurizio Cattelan, who can always be relied on to subject art’s current preoccupations to gleeful mockery, provided as the centerpiece of his latest show at Gagosian a marble sculpture entitled November.
—Glenn Adamson, ARTnews.com, 16 Dec. 2024
His camera’s graceful gyrations render all the more explicit the inextricable bond of dramas and their landscapes, embodying the film’s ideal of a physical and aesthetic connection with nature—its preoccupations with the spiritual dimensions of landscape and climate, color and texture.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preoccupation
Zac Anderson, USA TODAY, 25 Jan. 2025
The lazy tendency of many historical films is to put people with modern frameworks and preoccupations into period garb, telling stories that make sense to contemporary audiences.
—Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2024
More recently,Maurizio Cattelan, who can always be relied on to subject art’s current preoccupations to gleeful mockery, provided as the centerpiece of his latest show at Gagosian a marble sculpture entitled November.
—Glenn Adamson, ARTnews.com, 16 Dec. 2024
His camera’s graceful gyrations render all the more explicit the inextricable bond of dramas and their landscapes, embodying the film’s ideal of a physical and aesthetic connection with nature—its preoccupations with the spiritual dimensions of landscape and climate, color and texture.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preoccupation
Cite this Entry
“Preoccupation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/preoccupation. Accessed 9 Mar. 2025.
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