MEANING
1. A dissociative state involving loss of autobiographical memory and travel or wandering whose circumstances may later be unremembered.
2. In music, a contrapuntal composition that develops a recurring theme through interweaving voices.
Use it for
Unremembered travel; a character discovering an unfamiliar location; incomplete personal continuityMake the unexplained journey concrete while avoiding a casual medical diagnosis.
Words that belong together
- fugue state
- dissociative fugue
- emerge from a fugue
On the page
He emerged from a fugue in a town he could not identify.
The clinician considered a fugue after hearing about the missing journey.
A fugue played on the radio while she compared the railway tickets.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- fugue
Usage notes
Primary category: horror. Clinical fugue is uncommon and not a synonym for any blackout or daydream. Music also uses fugue for a contrapuntal composition. Noun plural: fugues. Derived/related family (not inflections): fugal (adjective in music).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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