craze
Craze (noun) means a brief but intense popular enthusiasm for something, a fad. Example: “The board game became a nationwide craze almost overnight.”
How to use craze
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA short-lived, intense trend or fashion, or (of pottery/paint) to crack into a fine web pattern.
Word forms
- Plural
- crazes
- Third person singular
- crazes
- Past tense
- crazed
Fill the gap
Can you complete this real example?
The board game became a nationwide _____ almost overnight.
Etymology
From Middle English crasen, "to shatter or break apart," from Old Norse — the modern "fad" sense developed later, as if popular enthusiasm were a kind of mental crack.