craziness

[krey-zee-nis]

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of craziness¹

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

Example Sentences

What happened next was the most improbable series of events inside a season that has come to be defined by last-minute craziness across the league.

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It must be nice for the audience to have that time at your show to be who they are, but are you addressing the craziness of everything in your act?

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“It closed the chapter on all the craziness of the past few years,” said Amanda, who is 32, works in market research sales and has a master’s degree.

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And then when I had just idle time, and I was just by myself in my condo, it was just a recipe for craziness.

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He had come to Portland two years ago “to get away from all the craziness,” he said, and found it to be safe.

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Related Words

• absurdity 
• idiocy 
• insanity 
• lunacy 
• madness 
• nonsense 
• nuttiness www.thesaurus.com
• silliness