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insanity definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: relatively permanent disorder of the mind [ant: saneness, sanity]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: 1590 1. a deranged state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder (as schizophrenia) 2. such unsoundness of mind or lack of understanding as prevents one from having the mental capacity required by law to enter into a particular relationship, status, or transaction or as removes one from criminal or civil responsibility 3. a. extreme folly or unreasonableness b. something utterly foolish or unreasonable

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Insanity In*san"i*ty, n. [L. insanitas unsoundness; cf. insania insanity, F. insanite.] 1. The state of being insane; unsoundness or derangement of mind; madness; lunacy. All power of fancy overreason is a degree of insanity. --Johnson. Without grace The heart's insanity admits no cure. --Cowper. 2. (Law) Such a mental condition, as, either from the existence of delusions, or from incapacity to distinguish between right and wrong, with regard to any matter under action, does away with individual responsibility. Syn: Syn>- Insanity, Lunacy, Madness, Derangement, Aliention, Aberration, Mania, Delirium, Frenzy, Monomania, Dementia. Usage: Insanity is the generic term for all such diseases; lunacy has now an equal extent of meaning, though once used to denote periodical insanity; madness has the same extent, though originally referring to the rage created by the disease; derangement, alienation, are popular terms for insanity; delirium, mania, and frenzy denote excited states of the disease; dementia denotes the loss of mental power by this means; monomania is insanity upon a single subject.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. Insanity is the state of being insane. The defence pleaded insanity, but the defendant was found guilty and sentenced. = madness 2. If you describe a decision or an action as insanity, you think it is very foolish. ...the final financial insanity of the 1980s. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp, oft N of n [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Derangement, lunacy, craziness, dementia, mania, madness, delirium, aberration of mind, alienation of mind, loss of reason.

Moby Thesaurus

aberration, absurdity, alienation, amentia, arrested development, asininity, backwardness, battiness, blithering idiocy, brain disease, brainlessness, buffoonery, clownishness, crack-up, crackpottedness, crankiness, craziness, cretinism, daffiness, delirium, delusion, dementia praecox, derangement, desipience, distraction, dotage, dottiness, eccentricity, emotional disorder, emotional instability, fatuity, fatuousness, folly, foolery, foolheadedness, foolishness, frenzy, frivolity, frivolousness, functional nervous disorder, giddiness, goofiness, half-wittedness, hallucination, hysteria, idiocy, idiotism, illusion, imbecility, impracticality, inanity, ineptitude, infantilism, insaneness, irrationality, irresponsibility, lunacy, madness, maladjustment, mania, manic-depressive psychosis, melancholia, mental defectiveness, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disorder, mental handicap, mental illness, mental retardation, mindlessness, mongolianism, mongolism, mongoloid idiocy, moronism, moronity, nervous breakdown, nervous disorder, neurosis, niaiserie, nonsense, nugacity, nuttiness, paranoia, personality disorder, preposterousness, problems in living, profound idiocy, psychoneurosis, psychopathy, psychosis, queerness, reaction, retardation, retardment, sappiness, schizophrenia, screwiness, senselessness, silliness, simple-wittedness, simplemindedness, simpleness, simplicity, social maladjustment, stupidity, subnormality, thoughtlessness, triflingness, triviality, unbalance, unreasonableness, wackiness, weirdness, witlessness, zaniness, zanyism