Psychosis

//saɪˈkəʊsɪs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A severe mental disorder, sometimes with physical damage to the brain, marked by a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality. countable, uncountable

    "Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese[…]began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death."

  2. 2
    any severe mental disorder in which contact with reality is lost or highly distorted wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abuliaarteriosclerotic psychosisbrain diseasecertifiabilitycrack upcrack-up

Example

More examples

"Fortunately, I have never succumbed to the psychosis they call love."

Etymology

From psych- + -osis or from Ancient Greek ψύχωσις (psúkhōsis, “animation, principle of life”).

Related phrases

AI psychosisKorsakoff's psychosischatbot psychosisnutmeg psychosisprison psychosisunitary psychosiswendigo psychosis

More for "psychosis"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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