madness
/ˈmadnəs
/noun [mass noun]
1The state of having a serious mental illness: in his madness he destroyed the work of years...
- In any case, my mental state bordered on madness, and twenty-four hours of Paris sufficed to restore me to my equilibrium.
- You teeter on the brink of more serious madness, perhaps as a result of frequent exposure to morbid imagery and bizarre literature.
- Dorothy tells us that what is called madness is really immense mental distress, inability to cope.
Synonyms
insanity, insaneness, dementia, mental illness, derangement, dementedness, instability, unsoundness of mind, lunacy, distraction, depression, mania, hysteria, frenzy, psychosis, psychopathy, schizophrenia, hydrophobia
informal craziness
North American informal meshugaas
Australian/New Zealand informal dingbats
rare moon-madness, cynanthropy, deliration, lycanthropy, zoanthropy
1.1Extremely foolish behaviour: it is madness to allow children to roam around after dark [count noun]: the new laws are a madness...
- I've long since given up on attempting to predict the behavior and madness of crowds.
- The duo have been entertaining audiences all over the world for more than a decade with their musical madness and bizarre antics.
- To introduce this sentiment into modern society would be madness.
Synonyms
folly, foolishness, stupidity, insanity, lunacy, midsummer madness, foolhardiness, idiocy, imprudence, irrationality, unreasonableness, illogicality, senselessness, nonsense, nonsensicalness, absurdness, absurdity, silliness, inanity, ludicrousness, wildness, preposterousness
informal craziness
British informal daftness
1.2A state of wild or chaotic activity: at midnight it’s absolute madness in here...
- Twenty minutes after the final out, I'm standing on the field in the midst of absolute madness.
- He is absolutely correct, there is total madness and mayhem on the roads in Bradford.
- So for madness and mayhem, fun and fanfare, chalk it down, it's Hulla-baloo for Waterford.
Synonyms
bedlam, mayhem, chaos, pandemonium, babel, uproar, turmoil, wild disarray, disorder, hurly-burly;
scene of confusion, madhouse, tumult, jumble, pell-mell, hullabaloo, hubbub, whirlwind, maelstrom, all hell broken loose
North American informal three-ring circus
