trend
/trɛnd
/noun
1A general direction in which something is developing or changing: an upward trend in sales and profit margins...
- Some trends may be apparent but other changes may occur which may contradict the general direction of the trend.
- The trend indicates the general tendency or direction over the long-term.
- Certainly in New South Wales, new trends are developing in terms of where foster families are in 2003.
Synonyms
tendency, movement, drift, swing, shift, course, current, run, direction, inclination, leaning;
bias, bent
2A fashion: the latest trends in modern dance...
- But what is the real impact on the home front of our obsession with fashionable and vogue trends?
- Even without a single currency, that is where we are sharing cultures, fashion and lifestyle trends.
- These days, in contrast, fashion trends emanate from a diverse range of sources.
Synonyms
fashion, vogue, style, mode, craze, mania, rage
informal fad, thing
3A topic that is the subject of many posts on a social media website or application within a short period of time: for more than 20 days in a row, most of the top Twitter trends were Olympics-related...
- At-a-glance access to the hottest Twitter trends helps you keep up with the zeitgeist.
- The late actor was among the top five trends on microblogging site Twitter.
- This is the second night in a row that soaps have taken over Twitter trends.
verb [no object]
1Change or develop in a general direction: unemployment has been trending upwards...
- The Finance Ministry has offered an annual interest rate of 6.4 percent for its seven-year saving bonds to be issued for the 2006 fiscal year, saying general interest rates are trending higher.
- Although the blue states are still considerably wealthier than the red states, the red states are currently trending upwards at a faster rate.
- The core inflation measure made its debut in the early 1970s when the headline inflation rate was trending sharply upwards.
Synonyms
move, go, tend, head, drift, gravitate, swing, shift, turn, incline, lean, veer
1.1(Especially of a geographical feature) bend or turn away in a specified direction: the Richelieu River trending southward to Lake Champlain...
- This zone forms a narrow band that trends from Loch Eriboll south to the Isle of Skye, and is bounded on the east by the Moine thrust fault.
- The paleoshoreline trended roughly northwest-southeast through the Big Bend region at that time.
- A regional swarm of dykes trending east-west to SE-NW, and mainly consisting of minette and mela-syenite to mela-granite porphyries, cuts the older granitoids but does not affect the younger generation of intrusions.
2(Of a topic) be the subject of many posts on a social media website or application within a short period of time: I’ve just taken a quick look at what’s trending on Twitter right now (as adjective trending) today’s top trending topics...
- We'll take a look at some of the M. J. stuff trending on the Web.
- Exciting things like 'Stockport', 'Sugababes' and 'ebay' are trending in Manchester at the moment.
- The meme started at 11 am CST and spiked around 3 pm when it became a trending topic.
Origin
Old English trendan 'revolve, rotate', of Germanic origin; compare with trundle. The verb sense 'turn in a specified direction' dates from the late 16th cent, and gave rise to the figurative use 'develop in a general direction' in the mid 19th century, a development paralleled in the noun.
Old English trendan had the meaning ‘revolve, rotate’. Of Germanic origin, it is related to trundle. The sense ‘turn in a specified direction’ dates from the late 16th century, and developed into ‘show a general tendency’ in the mid 19th.