fandom
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of fandom
Explanation
Use the word fandom to talk about the community of people who admire a particular celebrity, hero, sports team, or TV show. If you are president of the Boston Red Sox fan club, you're part of the team's fandom. Your favorite boy band might have a fandom that consists mainly of screaming pre-teens, while National Public Radio's fandom is probably mostly middle aged. If you are a fan of a singer or a series of comic books, you can say you belong to their fandom. The word has been around since the very early twentieth century, from fan, a baseball slang abbreviation of fanatic, which comes from the Latin fanaticus, "mad, or inspired by a god."
Vocabulary lists containing fandom
-dom and -hood
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The fandom for “Hey Arnold!” hasn’t wavered and remains as strong as ever three decades later.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
"The fandom around college football is better, it just is," he added.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
“In pop culture, we have introduced an entirely new fandom experience and destination that leans into things like trading cards and collectibles, but also exclusive collaborations, into one cohesive experience,” Sylvester said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
Marsh always assumed that you’d made the decision, or at least within the community of people who also took everything that surrounded music criticism and fandom “too seriously.”
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
“Well, it’s all fandom stuff. I don’t make money off of it.”
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
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.
