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
A Hero's Guide to Summer Vacation
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-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.
Banerjee added the crowd figures are just "one measure" and instead pointed to building "fandom" and "engagement" numbers, where the tournament was the most viewed season across The Hundred's own social media channels.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Rovner: We’ve spent our entire career finding the fandom.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
That is a very specific large fandom, and it’s about finding where they are and marketing towards them, letting them know that this content is there, because we know those fans are very dedicated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Wood seemed delighted by that fandom and, most of all, by the feeling of common purpose around his stores.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
“The online fandom would be in shambles. The wiki may crash.”
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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.
