🎶 A stuck song 🔁 A stuck thought

earworm

1 7.2

A thought, image, or phrase that keeps repeating in your mind

noun
/ˈɪrˌwɜrm/

: idea recurrente

After hearing that catchy tune on the radio, it quickly turned into an earworm that she couldn't shake off.

Examples

That strange phrase became an earworm and kept popping into my head all day.
After reading the slogan, it turned into an earworm that distracted him during meetings.
Sometimes a random image from a movie acts like an earworm and won't leave my mind.
I can't stop thinking about that earworm from the movie.
Why do I keep having this earworm in my head?
The catchy jingle became an earworm that played in her head all day, making her smile each time she thought of it.
He tried to focus on his work, but that annoying earworm kept drifting through his thoughts, distracting him.

Synonyms

itch in someone's brain

vsearworm

Informal

8.8

A thought that keeps coming into your mind and is hard to forget

is often a repeating fragment like a phrase or image rather than a broad idea

onomatomania

vsearworm

Specialized

9.9

A strong need to say or think the same word again and again

is a repeated fragment that may occur without an obsessive focus on specific words

Antonyms

forgetfulness

11 3.5

A habit of not remembering things like names or keys

Compounds

corn earworm

Specialized

8.1

A caterpillar that eats and damages corn and other crop plants

How Intrusive

earworm

1 7.2

intrusiveness

3 7.2

Surface Forms

earworm singular

earworms plural

Morphology

earworm = ear + worm (semi-transparent) = ear + worm

Compound 'ear' + 'worm' with a metaphorical extension to any intrusive thought or image; components are clear but the idiomatic, non-musical sense requires semantic generalization.

Etymology

The word earworm comes from the image of ear and worm, a tiny 'worm' that keeps coming back into your ear. Although it began with music, today an earworm can be any thought, phrase, or image that repeats and is hard to forget.