mania

[ mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh ]
See synonyms for mania on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. excessive excitement or enthusiasm; craze: The country has a mania for soccer.

  2. Psychiatry. manic disorder.

Origin of mania

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin, from Greek manía “madness”; akin to maenad, mind

Other words from mania

  • hy·per·ma·ni·a, noun
  • sub·ma·ni·a, noun

Words Nearby mania

Other definitions for Mania (2 of 3)

Mania
[ mey-nee-uh, meyn-yuh ]

noun
  1. an ancient Roman goddess of the dead.

Other definitions for -mania (3 of 3)

-mania

  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).

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mania in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for mania (1 of 2)

mania

/ (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

Origin of mania

1
C14: via Late Latin from Greek: madness

British Dictionary definitions for -mania (2 of 2)

-mania

n combining form
  1. indicating extreme desire or pleasure of a specified kind or an abnormal excitement aroused by something: kleptomania; nymphomania; pyromania

Origin of -mania

2
from mania

Derived forms of -mania

  • -maniac, adj combining form, n combining form

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for mania

mania

[ (may-nee-uh) ]


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

Notes for mania

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

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.