noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The state of being mad; insanity; mental disease. uncountable, usually

   "Though this be madneſſe, / Yet there is Method in 't: […]"

2. 2
   unrestrained excitement or enthusiasm wordnet
3. 3
   The state of being angry. uncountable, usually
4. 4
   the quality of being rash and foolish wordnet
5. 5
   Rash folly. uncountable, usually

Show 3 more definitions

6. 6
   a feeling of intense anger wordnet
7. 7
   an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain wordnet
8. 8
   obsolete terms for legal insanity wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

lunacycrazinesscrazinessfollyfuryinsaneness

Antonyms

All antonyms

reasonequilibriumsanity

Example

More examples

"It is no use trying to separate the sheep from the goats while in a state of madness."

Etymology

From Middle English madnes, madnesse; equivalent to mad + -ness.

Related phrases

March Madnesscanine madnessgluten-free madnessmethod in the madnessmethod to one's madnessmidsummer madnessmoon madnessmulga madnessrunning madnessthat way madness liesbeing crazycontains mad

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