Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon noun: a cognitive bias by which a recently learned word, concept, etc. suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency.
Noun
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (plural not attested)
- A cognitive bias by which a recently learned word, concept, etc. suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency.
- There’s a well-known cognitive bias where, after you become aware of something new, you start seeing it everywhere. It’s known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but from this year, I’ll think of it as the Katy B effect, after Katy on a Mission became the unexpected soundtrack of my summer.[2025 December 25, Elle Hunt, “Paranoia, pop-dubstep and perfectly odd gems: the best old music we discovered this year”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 Dec 2025
- Synonyms:
- Baader-Meinhof effect, frequency illusion
Synonyms of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
Origin of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
Named in 1994 after the West German Baader-Meinhof Group of the 1970s, when a commentator unexpectedly heard two references to the group within 24 hours. The group is named after two of its leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof.
Questions about Baader-Meinhof phenomenon
- What does Baader-Meinhof phenomenon mean?
- Baader-Meinhof phenomenon means a cognitive bias by which a recently learned word, concept, etc. suddenly seems to appear with improbable frequency.
- What part of speech is Baader-Meinhof phenomenon?
- Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is a noun.
Words near Baader-Meinhof phenomenon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/baader-meinhof_phenomenon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.