fad
Americannoun
noun
-
an intense but short-lived fashion; craze
-
a personal idiosyncrasy or whim
noun
Other Word Forms
- faddish adjective
- faddishness noun
- faddism noun
- faddist noun
- fadlike adjective
Etymology
Origin of fad
1825–35; noun use of dial. fad to look after things, busy oneself with trifles, back formation from obsolete faddle to play with, fondle. See fiddle
Explanation
If it’s all the rage, everybody’s into it, your parents don’t get it, and teenage girls across the globe are trying to outdo each other with it, it’s officially a fad. From hairstyles to hula hoops to saying “that’s hot,” fads are known to rise to crazed levels of popularity seemingly overnight. But they fade out just as fast, leaving late adopters with outdated sayings and some seriously uncool shoes. Much like a fad itself, no one has any real idea where this word came from. But it’s still in fashion some 144 years later.
Vocabulary lists containing fad
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The Friendship War
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Bad Boy
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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.
In the wake of an anticipated fiber craze that is expected to trump last year’s protein-maxxing dietary fad, chia seeds have become all the rage.
From Salon • Mar. 31, 2026
“Maybe the hyperscalers will actually be fine if rates are higher for longer. Maybe AI isn’t the next fad investors immediately get burned on.”
From MarketWatch • Dec. 18, 2025
"For the majority, it's just a fad, a trend. But for people like me, I'll be playing this until it breaks."
From BBC • Dec. 6, 2025
Her father, who ran television-broadcasting businesses, embraced a fad for macrobiotic food and hired a chef to prepare it for the family.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 3, 2025
I had seen it thousands of times, but suddenly what I had considered an empty imitation of a Hollywood fad was flooded with personal significance.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
