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View synonyms for déjà vu

déjà vu

or de·ja vu

[ dey-zhah voo, vyoo; French dey-zha vy ]

noun

  1. Psychology. the illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time.
  2. disagreeable familiarity or sameness:

    The new television season had a sense of déjà vu about it—the same old plots and characters with new names.

  3. the sense or feeling of having previously experienced something that really has been encountered before:

    It was déjà vu at the bobsled track today as the U.S. team again claimed the top podium positions.



déjà vu

/ deʒa vy; ˈdeɪʒæ ˈvuː /

noun

  1. the experience of perceiving a new situation as if it had occurred before. It is sometimes associated with exhaustion or certain types of mental disorder


déjà vu

  1. The strange sensation that something one is now experiencing has happened before: “I knew I had never been in the house before, but as I walked up the staircase, I got a weird sense of déjà vu.” From French, meaning “already seen.”


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Word History and Origins

Origin of déjà vu1

First recorded in 1900–05; from French: literally, “already seen”

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Word History and Origins

Origin of déjà vu1

from French, literally: already seen

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Example Sentences

You’d be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu right now if you’re just tuning into today’s primaries in Virginia.

From Time

Nepal’s positivity rate is inching closer to 50 percent of all those tested, in what is starting to feel like déjà vu as the country tracks almost exactly the same trajectory India did two weeks ago.

Stung by the departure of the Chargers and the half-dozen failed stadium plans that proceeded it, and the failed SoccerCity plan that followed it, San Diego’s most ardent sports fans experienced déjà vu.

Investors who were around in 2009 might be having déjà vu this year.

From Fortune

The allegations against big tech in the US antitrust hearings this week had a feeling of déjà vu for India.

From Quartz

Its old guard pushed back Monday, and I felt a powerful jolt of deja vu: Didn't the Pentagon just run this experiment?

A few minutes later, I understand why it all feels like a round of deja vu.

Much of the rest of the debate provided a sense of deja vu.

Which is great for me, I don't want to do deja vu all over again.

So my fears were not as unfounded as I had thought, was my predestined deja vu, then, real as well?

Perhaps it was only a case of predestined deja vu, or maybe it was something less tangible.

"Just a minute," Mallory interrupted, thoroughly bewildered and simultaneously afflicted with an irrational sense of deja vu.

Going back, when you've been away long enough, is not so much a homecoming as a dream deja vu.

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