an intense but short-lived fashion; craze
a personal idiosyncrasy or whim
1825–35; noun use of dial. fad to look after things, busy oneself with trifles, back formation from obsolete faddle to play with, fondle. See fiddle
If it’s all the rage, everybody’s into it, your parents don’t get it, and teenage girls across the globe are trying to outdo each other with it, it’s officially a fad. From hairstyles to hula hoops to saying “that’s hot,” fads are known to rise to crazed levels of popularity seemingly overnight. But they fade out just as fast, leaving late adopters with outdated sayings and some seriously uncool shoes. Much like a fad itself, no one has any real idea where this word came from. But it’s still in fashion some 144 years later.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“If raw milk was a fad or a lie, then why would people repeatedly buy raw milk and then tell the world how they love it,” he said.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
I am disheartened by the merely contemporary and hence indifferent to every fad.
From MarketWatch ● May 13, 2026
But until recently, they were still considered a fad, and not part of the mainstream.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
Tim Cook steps down as Apple’s CEO, RFK Jr. furthers the peptides fad, and The Onion finally gets InfoWars.
From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2026
Briony was lost to her writing fantasies—what had seemed a passing fad was now an enveloping obsession.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
The company aims to pay out 75% to 80% of its FAD to shareholders each year in dividends—both regular and special—and stock repurchases, while boosting its base payout by 5% annually.
From Barron's ● Dec. 5, 2025
The energy contained in the electrons of these atoms is insufficient to reduce NAD+ but adequate to reduce FAD.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The enzymes respond most often to the levels of the available nucleosides ATP, ADP, AMP, NAD+, and FAD.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The net result is a radical pair made of a negatively charged FAD radical in the center of the protein and, two nanometers away, a positively charged tryptophan radical at the surface of the protein.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 15, 2022
On one patrol with Baiei, we stopped at a FAD so that I could dive in for a closer look.
From New York Times ● Feb. 17, 2016
We have the opposite problem — mountains of rigorous scientific evidence, drowned out by noisy advice, marketing, and fads.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 21, 2026
Many parents feel they're struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing fads and trends on social media.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
He notes that the interwar period allowed increased leisure time for many, generating fads for new games such as the clue-based crossword puzzle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
But unlike flash-in-the-pan fads, this one may have staying power.
From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2026
But such fads can persist in isolated societies.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
