Make Your Point: FRENZY

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pronounce FRENZY:

FREN zee

connect this word to others:

I will never forget this one afternoon when my sisters and I were out together, when a heavy rain had just begun, and as we dashed from the car into a store we realized that one of our littlest sisters, only eight at the time, was missing. That sent us into a frenzy.

Yeah, we found her pretty quick, and I think she was just chilling inside a gas station, but this was after some frenzied searching, splitting up, and desperately asking everyone around us if they'd seen a little girl on her own. She has an identical twin, so we were pointing to the twin we did have with us, saying, "HAVE YOU SEEN HER? SHE LOOKS LIKE JUST THIS ONE." It was nuts.

By definition, and by a close etymological relationship, something frenzied is fren___c: it's full of wild, fast, crazy, uncontrolled, perhaps even hysterical movement. Can you recall that more formal adjective?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Frenzy" traces back through French and Latin to the Greek phrenitikos, meaning "inflammation of the mind or brain."

For many centuries in English, we've used "frenzy" to mean "a fit of strong emotions—especially anger, worry, or excitement—as if you've lost your mind or lost control of yourself."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, usually the countable kind: "They whipped themselves into a frenzy."

Occasionally the uncountable kind: "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is wall-to-wall animated frenzy (Wall Street Journal)."

Other forms:

"Frenzy" is also a verb, but it's extremely rare these days.

We do use the past participle form, "frenzied," as an adjective to describe movements, sounds, shouts, and crowds that seem to have been stirred up into a frenzy.

how to use it:

Pick the common, serious, dramatic word "frenzy" when you want to describe a person, a group of people, or an entire situation that's wild and full of seemingly uncontrolled emotions, movements, and activities.

We think of a frenzy as three-dimensional. So, we say that something sends someone into a frenzy, or that someone flies into a frenzy or works themselves into a frenzy, or that someone does things in a frenzy.

We also talk about certain types of frenzies: a media frenzy, a summertime frenzy, a ticket-buying frenzy.

And, we talk about a frenzy of things: a frenzy of shouts and stomps, a frenzy of desperate selling, "a frenzy of slicing, dicing, and broiling (Chris Grabenstein)."

examples:

"The sea becomes rough and your emotions are whipped into a frenzy."
— Yann Martel, Life of Pi, 2001

"In a senseless frenzy Tree-ear threw leaves and sticks and clods of dirt—whatever he could get his hands on.''
— Linda Sue Park, A Single Shard, 2001

has this page helped you understand "frenzy"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

study it:

Explain the meaning of "frenzy" without saying "hysteria" or "turmoil."

try it out:

Check out the example below, from a novel by Karina Yan Glaser. A girl is playing her violin angrily near a water wall: a Rube Goldbergian device that captures rainwater and channels it through various chutes and windchimes.

"The music exploded through the brownstone, reverberating through the brick walls and making the air crackle. The brownstone shuddered and shook. Outside, the water wall was a frenzy of chimes knocking madly into each other, and the sounds of crashing metal."

What a delightful frenzy.

See if you can give another example of a frenzy of sounds you've heard: some kind of chaotic mess of sounds that seems driven by emotion. Is your example delightful or horrible?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Alliterate a Little; It'll Lift It."

I'll give you a phrase that doesn't alliterate, and you'll make it alliterate by changing one or both words—while preserving, as best you can, the meaning of the original.

For example: A car that demands too much fuel is a "gas guzzler." But what alliterative term could you invent for a dishwasher that demands too much detergent?

You could call it a "soap slurper," or a "detergent devourer."

Try this one today...

Someone who has a hard time saying no is a "people pleaser." What alliterative term could you invent for a "control freak"?

To see one possible answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of FRENZY could be

A. MUSIC or MELODY.
B. TRANCE or SERENITY.
C. LOVE or ADORATION.

2. An article in Nature refers to the "_____" as a frenzy.

A. purpose of academic freedom
B. process of teaching a child to think critically
C. electrical signals coursing through the brain's circuits

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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