semantic-satiation

A word repeated loses its meaning temporarily, becoming mere sound. Coined by Leon Jakobovits James in 1962, the phenomenon is stable and possibly a cognitive form of reactive inhibition — the brain habituates to the repeated stimulus and the semantic content drains, leaving only the phonetic shell (Wikipedia: Semantic satiation, read 2026-06-18).

The meaning returns after a pause. It is a short-term, within-session effect.