From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmaniama‧ni‧a /ˈmeɪniə/ noun [countable, uncountable] 1 OBSESSIONa strong desire for something or interest in something, especially one that affects a lot of people at the same time SYN crazemania for the Victorian mania for butterfly collectingreligious/football/disco etc mania Keep-fit mania has hit some of the girls in the office.2 medicalMP a serious mental illness → manic
Examples from the Corpus
mania• Harvey had always had a mania for showers and baths and he had taken to the sauna ritual with great enthusiasm.• I had a mania for cleanliness, and once made him stay in all day while I washed all his clothes.• They have a mania for getting at the most delicate parts of the engine.• A mania for a game called Nibs ran through the school.• Mood disorders such as mania and depression involve inappropriate emotional responses.• In both manias fusion with the psychic representative of the parental figure - the superego - occurs with comparable consequences.• Whatever his manias, his music remains a cornerstone of the classical repertoire.• Lottery mania is sweeping the state.• Aunt Edna was scathing about her cousin's religious mania.• They tend to get disorganized as the mania increases, and even more prone to poor judgment.• The mania persisted into the present century.mania for• The book is about the 1980s mania for mergers and takeovers.Origin mania (1300-1400) Late Latin Greek, from mainesthai “to be mentally ill” 