mania

¹

[mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh]

noun

1. excessive excitement or enthusiasm; craze.

   The country has a mania for soccer.

2. Psychiatry.,  manic disorder.

Mania

²

[mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh]

noun

1. an ancient Roman goddess of the dead.

-mania

³

1. a combining form of mania (megalomania ); extended to mean “enthusiasm, often of an extreme and transient nature,” for that specified by the initial element (bibliomania ).

mania

¹

/ ˈmeɪnɪə /

noun

1. a mental disorder characterized by great excitement and occasionally violent behaviour See also manic-depressive

2. an obsessional enthusiasm or partiality

   a mania for mushrooms

-mania

²

combining form

1. indicating extreme desire or pleasure of a specified kind or an abnormal excitement aroused by something

   kleptomania

   nymphomania

   pyromania

mania

1. Violent, abnormal, or impulsive behavior. In psychological terms, mania is wild activity associated with manic depression.

A “mania” in popular terms is an intense enthusiasm or craze.

Other Word Forms

• hypermania noun
• submania noun
• -maniac combining form

Word History and Origins

Origin of mania¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin, from Greek manía “madness”; akin to maenad, mind

Word History and Origins

Origin of mania¹

C14: via Late Latin from Greek: madness

Origin of mania²

from _mania

Example Sentences

The period in our chart pretty much coincides with the period since ChatGPT’s launch sparked the AI mania.

Read more on MarketWatch

Last month, OpenAI published a study based on ChatGPT usage that found the mental health conversations that trigger safety concerns like psychosis, mania or suicidal thinking are “extremely rare.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

And Gina Gershon, while adding a bit of mania as the mysterious Marie Bertrand, is also something of a satellite to the mothership, so to speak, a series with a first-rate cast that suffers a few too many self-inflicted wounds.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Even its CEO sees some “irrationality” in the current AI mania.

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“One has to be very careful about momentum investing in mania periods, and I feel that’s where we are right now” with AI, Gundlach said.

Read more on MarketWatch

Related Words

• craving 
• craze 
• craziness 
• enthusiasm 
• fad 
• fascination 
• frenzy 
• infatuation 
• lunacy 
• obsession 
• passion 
• rage 

When To Use

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.