INSANITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Insanity

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/ɪnsˈænəti/ /ɪnsˈænɪti/ Listen

noun

Insanity n.

The state of being insane; unsoundness or derangement of mind; madness; lunacy. "All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity." "Without grace The heart's insanity admits no cure."

(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.

Synonyms: Insanity, Lunacy, Madness, Derangement, Alienation, Aberration, Mania, Delirium, Frenzy, Monomania, Dementia. 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.

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Etymology of 'Insanity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Insanity" Quotes from Famous Books

... paint," Elfrida answered quickly. "I have put away the insanity of thinking I ever could. I told you that, I think, in a letter. But there are—other things. You may remember that you ...

— A Daughter of To-Day • Sara Jeannette Duncan (aka Mrs. Everard Cotes)

... went on all about us in the sunshine, the pressure of the encircling line of death grew more intolerably real. It is not in the mud and jokes and every-day activities of the trenches that one most feels the damnable insanity of war; it is where it lurks like a mythical monster in scenes to which the mind has always turned ...

— Fighting France - From Dunkerque to Belport • Edith Wharton

... threw herself at the feet of the Queen, implored her pardon, and disturbed the Temple for many days with the sight and the noise of her madness. The Princesses, forgetting the denunciations of this unfortunate being, in consideration of her repentance and insanity, watched over her by turns, and deprived themselves of their own food to relieve her.—LAMARTINE, "History of the ...

— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan

... beaming man observed zestfully. "Of the Interstellar Medical Service, to which all problems of public health may be referred! But here we have a real problem for you! A contagious madness! A transmissible delusion! An epidemic of insanity! A plague of ...

— The Hate Disease • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... To her, loss of memory smacked of insanity of which she was terribly in awe—like all her race. However, under Stonor's stern eye she kept her face ...

— The Woman from Outside - [on Swan River] • Hulbert Footner

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