mania
noun
excessive excitement or enthusiasm; craze.
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mania
1 American
[mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh]
/ ˈmeɪ ni ə, ˈmeɪn jə /
noun
-
manias
plural
-
excessive excitement or enthusiasm; craze.
The country has a mania for soccer.
-
Psychiatry. manic disorder.
Mania
2
American
[mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh]
/ ˈmeɪ ni ə, ˈmeɪn jə /
noun
-mania
3
American
mania
1
British
/ ˈmeɪnɪə /
noun
-
a mental disorder characterized by great excitement and occasionally violent behaviour See also manic-depressive
-
an obsessional enthusiasm or partiality
a mania for mushrooms
-mania
2
British
combining form
mania
Cultural
Usage
What does -mania mean? The combining form -mania is used like a suffix meaning literally “mania,” often in the sense of "enthusiasm, often of an extreme or transient nature." It is often used in scientific and technical terms, especially in psychology. The form -mania comes from Greek manía, meaning “madness.” Latin has three translations for manía: dēmentia, furor, and rabiēs, all meaning “madness.” Find out more at our entries for dementia, furor, and rabies.
Discover More
A “mania” in popular terms is an intense enthusiasm or craze.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mania
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin, from Greek manía “madness”; akin to maenad, mind
Explanation
Mania is an extreme interest, desire, or craze. If you dye your dog's fur to match the colors of your favorite football team, you might be suffering from sportsmania. Mania has for centuries been associated with “madness” or “mental derangement.” It's still used in the mental health fields to mean the excitable, overactive phase of bipolar disorder or, as a suffix, to describe a compulsion, such as kleptomania (to steal) or pyromania (to set fires). More generally, it might be used as a suffix to describe enthusiasm, as in Beatlemania (The Beatles) or Pottermania (Harry Potter).
Vocabulary lists containing mania
Stargirl
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And Then There Were None
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It's Madness!: Mania
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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.
See Examples For:
London's sold-out Bayeux Tapestry exhibition will open Thursday to a British public gripped by "mania" as the medieval artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England goes on display outside France for the first time.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
Indeed, assets managed by leveraged ETFs around the world surged earlier this year as AI mania shifted into overdrive.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 30, 2026
“It’s a film noir that is also starring cartoon characters, and it’s got this collision of tones,” Green says of Zemeckis’ landmark, a movie that somehow bridges bonk-on-the-head mania with a voluptuous femme fatale.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
With postpartum psychosis, which is considered a medical emergency, patients can experience mania, depression or a mixture of both.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
As his collecting mania grew, he neglected his medical practice.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Appeared in the September 11, 2025, print edition as 'Mining Deal Reflects Copper Mania'.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2025
Attendees were also surprised by the developers of the 2017 hit, Sonic Mania, unexpectedly announcing their latest game.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2024
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner who spurred Messi Mania in the United States by joining MLS will now turn his attention to Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Uruguay in November.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 22, 2023
Outside the stadium, it was Messi Mania for the superstar, who led Argentina to the World Cup title last year and has essentially become a one-man 1992 Dream Team.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
She enjoyed the WWF Wrestling Mania shows, where Hulk Hogan and Mr. Perfect, whose necks were wider than their heads, wore spangled Lycra leggings and beat each other up brutally.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian High summer -mania, if such a thing really exists, appears to be a fitful condition, a complaint that passes in a rush leaving its victims mercifully unpocked.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 25, 2010
Sadly, those who warn about stock-market manias, bubbles and Ponzi finance always look wrong until they look right.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
No one seems to know, but I find it helpful to remind myself constantly that the internet can make niche manias look like moral revolutions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
It’s hard to value the potential growth of such businesses, which is why speculative meme-stock manias can take hold so easily.
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2025
Berg, a Swiss writer and social activist, sprays her fury across the whole landscape of technological and economic manias that are rendering the 21st century intolerable.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 13, 2022
Used to his manias, Aureliano paid no attention to him.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
