drive someone crazy

verb

"drive-someone-crazy" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“drive someone crazy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
19
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To cause someone to become insane.

Corpus desk

Index EN-drive-someone-crazy · drive someone crazy · English

drive someone crazy · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 19 letters
  • VOW-8 8 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "D" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for drive someone crazy
PropertyValue
Headworddrive someone crazy
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “drive someone crazy” in English

drive someone crazyranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

drive someone crazy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for drive someone crazy in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is drive someone crazy, spelled D-R-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -C-R-A-Z-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    To cause someone to become insane.
  2. 2
    To annoy or irritate.
  3. 3
    To cause to be infatuated.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how drive someone crazy appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Jesse Helms, the Republican from North Carolina, drove me crazy at first.
  2. Dance for you / Don't it drive you crazy baby?

Synonyms

drive someone insanedrive someone maddrive someone nutsdrive someone up the walldrive to distraction

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "drive someone crazy"?
"drive someone crazy" is spelled D-R-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -C-R-A-Z-Y.
What does "drive someone crazy" mean?
As a verb, "drive someone crazy" means: To cause someone to become insane.
What language does "drive someone crazy" come from?
"drive someone crazy" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list