Phrase guide

English fever

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

Preoccupation or obsession with learning or promoting the learning of the English language.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Examples

  • 2003 Stephen Krashen, "Dealing with English Fever," In: Selected Papers from the Twelfth International Symposium on English Teaching, English Teachers' Association/ROC, Taipei, Crane Publishing Company, 2003. pp. 100-108. English fever = the overwhelming desire to (1) acquire English, (2) ensure that one's children acquire English, as a second or foreign language.
  • 2007 Jinkyu Park, "Korean Parents in 'English Fever' and Their 'early Study-abroad' Children in the United States: Parental Beliefs and Practices Concerning First Language Peers," Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University, August 2007, pp. 19-20. The relentless competition for learning English showed the tip of its monstrous image in the summer of 1991, when the government announced the plan to introduce English to elementary school grades by 1995. The news brought a huge typhoon of English, which swept the whole country into "English fever."

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.