Trend

How to spell trend

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trend

What does trend mean?

1. nounA general direction in which something is developing or changing, or a current popular style.
2. verbTo develop in a general direction, or to become widely popular at a given moment.

Trend in a sentence

• noun

  The sales figures show an upward trend over the past year.

• verb

  Interest rates continue to trend downward as the economy cools.

• noun

  Wearing bold colours to the office became a noticeable trend this spring.

• verb

  The new song began to trend across social media within hours of its release.

Where does trend come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Trend comes from the Old English verb trendan, which meant 'to turn, roll, or revolve', and is related to the noun trendel meaning a ring or circle. For centuries the word kept that physical sense of turning, and in the seventeenth century it was used for the way a river, coastline, or vein of ore would bend or run in a particular direction. From that geographical 'general direction' meaning it gradually became figurative, so that by the nineteenth century a trend was the prevailing tendency of events, opinions, or markets. The familiar sense of a passing fashion or popular style grew out of this, and the verb 'to trend' (to be currently popular, especially online) is a very recent extension. The same Germanic root also gave us 'trundle', another word about rolling and turning, which is a useful reminder that trend originally described movement rather than fashion.

How the word is built

• trend (from Old English trendan: to turn, roll, revolve), now used as both noun and verb