Insanity

//ɪnˈsænɪti// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being insane; madness. countable, uncountable

    "The defendant pleaded insanity in the hope of getting a reduced sentence."

  2. 2
    relatively permanent disorder of the mind wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
madnessaberrationabnormalityabsurdityalienationamentia

Example

More examples

"Genius is only one remove from insanity."

Etymology

A three-part word (root 'sane', prefix 'in-' meaning 'not', suffix '-ity', meaning 'the state of'). Derived from Latin precursory equivalents. Two possible candidates for construction order: * insane + -ity: īnsānus (“unhealthy; insane”) + -itās *: Latin īnsānus (“unsound in mind; mad, insane”), from in- + sānus (“sound, sane”). Modern forms of roots: in- + sane * in- + sanity: in- (“lacking; without”) + sānitās (“health; sanity”) *: Latin sānitās (“sound in mind; sane”), from sānus + -itās. Modern forms of roots: sane + -ity

Related phrases

masturbational insanitymasturbatory insanity

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.