What does "psychopathy" mean?

A personality disorder characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits masked by superficial charm and the outward presence of apparent normality. Violent and criminal offenses may be indicative of this disorder.

How do you pronounce "psychopathy"?

Pronounced //saɪˈkɒpəθi//.

Psychopathy

Q: What is a synonym for "psychopathy"?

Common synonyms include: aberration, abulia, alienation, arteriosclerotic psychosis, certifiability, character disorder.

//saɪˈkɒpəθi// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A personality disorder characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits masked by superficial charm and the outward presence of apparent normality. Violent and criminal offenses may be indicative of this disorder. countable, uncountable
2
any disease of the mind; the psychological state of someone who has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric intervention wordnet
3
A mental illness; insanity. countable, obsolete, uncountable
"It is true that insanity may originate in the mind, as well as in the body, but diseased action must take place in the brain, otherwise we have not, as has been well observed, “a true psychopathy.”"

Synonyms

All synonyms

aberration abulia alienation arteriosclerotic psychosis certifiability character disorder

Example

More examples

"According to Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams, the "dark triad" of personality traits consists of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy."

Etymology

From psycho- + -pathy.

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