Main meanings of fad in English

fad¹

Pronunciation /fad/

Translate fad into Spanish

noun

1An intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze.
‘some regard green politics as no more than the latest fad’
- ‘What started off as a fad among stamp enthusiasts has now grown into a veritable cult.’
- ‘It is really quite wonderful, and I truly hope it is the beginning of a trend, not a short-lived fad.’
- ‘Unlike more transitory fads and fashions, however, financial manias and panics have real and lasting economic consequences.’
- ‘Because of that, they captured trends and fads that were happening at the moment more accurately than movies that took a year to make.’
- ‘They must invest in style and model change in order to maintain market share in industries where fashions and fads quickly come and go.’
- ‘John Updike, John Irving and the redoubtable Mailer believed the white-suited novelist had become overly concerned with the passing fads of the social scene.’
- ‘I tend to sit in my own corner and do what I enjoy doing without too much concern with the latest fad, style or trend.’
- ‘A fad is a short lived mania, of no apparent rationale that in retrospect looks pretty silly.’
- ‘And what happened to the fashion fad for biodegradable packaging?’
- ‘Following on from the recent blog fad, I will share with you the last 10 songs I played on my i-Pod.’
- ‘The digital age probably has produced more fads in its short life than any other human endeavor in a comparable time span.’
- ‘To me, fashion is what looks good, not the latest craze or fad.’
- ‘I think there are fads and fashions in television as in other modes of life, so it is quite possible that this particular type of reality television will fade away, to be replaced by something not so dissimilar.’
- ‘The family-owned auction firm has built its success on the excesses associated with economic fads and stock-market bubbles.’
- ‘But by definition, all fads fade, and even Calvin acknowledges that scooter mania has probably already peaked.’
- ‘This is to say, unlike the products of the popular culture, social norms do not bend easily to transient tastes or the latest fads.’
- ‘Hula hoops and pet rocks were fads; personal computers and cellular telephones are trends that are changing the way people live.’
- ‘This is the latest diet fad to play on many people's insecurity about their bodies.’
- ‘Other big sellers included micro scooters, the fad which swept through the country in 2000 and a favourite with young and old alike.’
- ‘He will be looking at fitness as a career, fitness assessment and the psychology of exercise, to encourage people to have realistic fitness goals instead of fads and quick fixes.’
craze, vogue, trend, fashion, mode, enthusiasm, passion, infatuation, love, obsession, mania, rage, compulsion, fixation, fetish, weakness, fancy, taste, novelty, whim, fascination, preoccupation
View synonyms
1. 1.1An arbitrary like or dislike.
  ‘his fads about the type of coffee he must have’
  ‘And it really offends me when people assume my choice is made out of a fad or lack of research.’
  ‘Where do these seemingly arbitrary fads come from?’
  ‘"It's a sort of fad of his to eat nothing but fish, and he's very proud of catching his own."’
  whim, whimsy, vagary, fancy, notion, fad, freak, humour, impulse, quirk, eccentricity, foible, crotchet, urge
  View synonyms