craziness

American  

[krey-zee-nis] / ˈkreɪ zi nɪs /

noun

1. the state or condition of being mentally deranged; madness.

   Thinking you can handle everything in life by yourself is itself a kind of craziness.

   The long, dark Arctic winter produced a kind of craziness in him.

2. Informal. the state or quality of being wildly busy, hectic, chaotic, etc..

   Now that the Christmas craziness is over, I'm finally getting back to writing my blog.

3. Informal. an unpredictable, nonconforming, or odd quality; eccentricity.

   Dave is perfect for me—he understands me, laughs with me, and loves me in spite of my craziness.

4. Informal. a bizarre or random quality, or something having this quality.

   Shooting this movie we got away with a lot of improv and craziness and stuff that didn't have to fit or have much meaning behind it.

5. Informal. a rash, silly, or unsound quality, or behavior, ideas, etc., of this kind.

   He argued against the craziness of changing the clocks every fall, making late afternoon even more dangerous for children coming home from school.

6. Informal. intense or excessive emotion about someone or something; enthusiasm, infatuation, alarm, frustration, etc. (usually followed by about, for, orover ).

   His craziness about her is based solely on her beauty.

   I expect the switchboards to be lit up with people's craziness over this issue.

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Etymology

Origin of craziness

First recorded in 1610–20; crazy ( def. ) + -ness ( def. )

Example Sentences

And then, I don’t know if it was the release of tension or just the craziness of it or what, Hannie’s mouth twitched into a smile – a real one this time.

From Literature

I felt my heart sink a little; the craziness of finding the Cocoon had kind of overshadowed the Lincoln assassination failure.

From Literature

There’s plenty of noise left, and not just from those ever-hovering drones making us appreciate the speed and craziness of these snow and ice sports.

From The Wall Street Journal

I was working toward nothing less than the righting of wrongs, turning evil to good, and stopping the craziness that was steadily and surely taking over my valley.

From Literature

“Hi. Back to normal craziness. Julio asked you to stop by his office.”

From Literature

Related Words

• absurdity
• idiocy
• insanity
• lunacy
• madness
• nonsense
• nuttiness
• silliness