Psycho

//ˈsaɪ̯.koʊ̯// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who is psychotic, psychopathic, or (broadly) otherwise insane. derogatory, slang

    "The loony bin up on the hill is full of psychos."

  2. 2
    A class, at a college or university, in which psychology is taught. informal, uncountable

    "I've got anthro, socio, lunch, and psycho."

  3. 3
    a person afflicted with psychosis wordnet
  4. 4
    A person who acts in a bizarre or dangerous manner. broadly, derogatory, slang

    "She complained that he was a psycho for driving at such a high speed in heavy traffic."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Psychotic, psychopathic, or (broadly) otherwise insane. colloquial, derogatory

    "That psycho jawn had snuck a pistol into the gym while we was practicing and started shooting shit up like she was some kinda hot female action hero."

Example

More examples

"Yanni was acting like some kind of psycho."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of psychotic or psychopath + -o (“person with characteristic”). Compare sicko.

Etymology 2

Clipping of psychology.

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