Craziness

How to spell craziness

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce craziness

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does craziness mean?

1. nounThe state or quality of being wildly irrational, chaotic, or absurd.

Craziness in a sentence

• The craziness of the holiday rush left the shop staff exhausted.

• She laughed at the sheer craziness of trying to drive across the city at rush hour.

Where does craziness come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The word traces back to the verb 'craze', which in Middle English meant 'to shatter' or 'to break into pieces', probably borrowed from an Old Norse source related to 'krasa', meaning to crush or crackle. By the 1500s 'crazed' had developed a figurative sense, describing a mind that was broken or unsound, much as a flawed pot is described as crazed when its surface is covered in fine cracks. From 'crazy', the adjective, English built the noun 'craziness' by adding the familiar '-ness' ending that turns a quality into a thing, a pattern seen in words like 'happiness' and 'kindness'. The spelling trap lives at that join: the adjective 'crazy' ends in '-y', and that '-y' becomes an '-i' before '-ness', giving 'craziness' rather than 'crazyness'. The same rule reshapes 'busy' into 'business' and 'happy' into 'happiness', so remembering the i-for-y swap is the key to spelling it correctly.

How the word is built

• craze (root: to shatter, become unsound)
• -y (adjective suffix)
• -ness (noun suffix: state or quality)