madness

English

Etymology

From Middle English madnes, madnesse; equivalent to mad +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmad.nəs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmæd.nəs/, /ˈmæd.nɪs/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛd.nɘs/
• Rhymes: (US) -ædnəs

Noun

madness (countable and uncountable, plural madnesses)

1. The state of being mad; insanity; mental disease.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:insanity

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 261, column 2:

     Though this be madneſſe, / Yet there is Method in 't: […]

   • 1980 March 7, Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”, in Glass Houses‎^[1]:

     You were lonely for a man
     I said, "Take me as I am"
     'Cause you might enjoy some madness for a while

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Eden Prime:

     Shepard: What's wrong with your assistant?
     Dr. Warren: Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin.
     Dr. Manuel: Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!
     Dr. Warren: I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack.

2. The state of being angry.
3. rash folly

Usage notes

To convey the state of being mad as in angry, the word anger is used instead.

Antonyms

• sanity

Derived terms

• canine madness
• gluten-free madness
• method to one's madness
• midsummer madness
• moon madness
• mulga madness
• running madness
• that way madness lies

 

Translations

insanity

• Afrikaans: waansin, waansinnigheid, kranksinnigheid
• Albanian: marrëzi (sq) f
• Arabic: جُنُون (ar) m (junūn)

  Egyptian Arabic: جنون m (gunūn)

• Armenian: խելագարություն (hy) (xelagarutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: dəlilik
• Belarusian: шале́нства n (šaljénstva), вар'я́цтва n (varʺjáctva)
• Bulgarian: лу́дост (bg) f (lúdost), безу́мие (bg) n (bezúmie)
• Catalan: bogeria (ca) f, follia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 狂 (zh) (kuáng), 瘋病 / 疯病 (zh) (fēngbìng), 精神錯亂 / 精神错乱 (zh) (jīngshéncuòluàn)

• Czech: šílenství (cs) n, šílenost f
• Danish: galskab c, sindssyge c, vanvid (da) n
• Dutch: krankzinnigheid (nl) f, waanzin (nl) m
• Esperanto: frenezeco
• Estonian: hullumeelsus
• Finnish: hulluus (fi)
• French: folie (fr) f
• Galician: loucura (gl) f, tolería (gl) f, tolemia (gl) f, doudice f, folía f, vesania f, tolén f
• Georgian: სიგიჟე (sigiže), სულით ავადმყოფობა (sulit avadmq̇opoba)
• German: Wahnsinn (de) m, Verrücktheit (de) f
• Greek: παραφροσύνη (el) f (parafrosýni), τρέλα (el) f (tréla)

  Ancient: μανία f (manía)

• Hebrew: שִׁגָּעוֹן (he) m (shiga'ón), טֵרוּף (he) m (terúf)
• Hindi: पागलपन (hi) m (pāgalpan)
• Hungarian: őrület (hu), őrültség (hu)
• Icelandic: brjálæði (is) n
• Indonesian: kegilaan (id)
• Italian: pazzia (it) f, follia (it) f
• Japanese: 狂気 (ja) (きょうき, kyōki)
• Kazakh: ақылсыздық (aqylsyzdyq)
• Korean: 광기(狂氣) (ko) (gwanggi)
• Kyrgyz: жиндилик (ky) (jindilik)
• Latin: vēsānia f, insānia f, insānitās f, vēcordia f, dēmentia f, amentia
• Latvian: ārprāts m, vājprāts m, trakums m
• Lithuanian: beprotybė f, pamišimas m
• Macedonian: лудило n (ludilo), лудост f (ludost)
• Malayalam: ഭ്രാന്ത് (ml) (bhrāntŭ), വട്ട് (ml) (vaṭṭŭ), കിറുക്ക് (ml) (kiṟukkŭ)
• Manx: meecheeallid m
• Middle English: madnesse
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: galskap (no) m

• Occitan: foliá (oc) f
• Old English: wōdnes f
• Ottoman Turkish: جنت (cinnet), مجنونلق (mecnunluk)
• Persian: دیوانگی (fa) (divânegi)
• Plautdietsch: Wonsenn m
• Polish: szaleństwo (pl) n, obłęd (pl) m, świr (pl) m (colloquial), fioł (pl) m (colloquial), szajba (pl) f (expressive), niepoczytalność (pl) f, kręciek m (old), wariactwo (pl) n, amok (pl) m
• Portuguese: loucura (pt) f, insanidade f, maluquice (pt) f, malucagem f, vesânia (pt) f, doidice (pt) f, doideira (pt) f
• Romanian: nebunie (ro) f
• Russian: безу́мие (ru) n (bezúmije), сумасше́ствие (ru) n (sumasšéstvije), помеша́тельство (ru) n (pomešátelʹstvo), безу́мство (ru) n (bezúmstvo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: лу̏дост f, лу̀дило n, порѐмећено̄ст f

  Roman: lȕdost (sh) f, lùdilo (sh) n, porèmećenōst f

• Slovak: šialenstvo n, šialenosť f
• Slovene: norost (sl) f, blaznost f
• Spanish: locura (es) f
• Swedish: vansinne (sv) n, vanvett (sv) n, galenskap (sv) c
• Tajik: девонагӣ (devonagi)
• Telugu: పిచ్చి (te) (picci)
• Turkish: delilik (tr)
• Ukrainian: божеві́лля (uk) n (boževíllja), безу́мство (uk) n (bezúmstvo), безу́мність (uk) f (bezúmnistʹ), шале́ність f (šalénistʹ), навіже́ність f (navižénistʹ), варія́ція f (varijácija)

rash folly

• Afrikaans: malligheid
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蠢事 (zh) (chǔnshì)

• Danish: galskab c, vanvid (da) n
• Finnish: hulluus (fi)
• Galician: tolemia (gl) f
• Hungarian: őrültség (hu)
• Kabuverdianu: asnera
• Middle English: madnesse
• Portuguese: loucura (pt) f
• Russian: помеша́тельство (ru) n (pomešátelʹstvo)
• Swedish: vansinne (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} folie (fr)
• German: ^{(please verify)} Tollheit (de) f
• Ido: ^{(please verify)} foleso (io)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} follia (it), ^{(please verify)} pazzia (it), ^{(please verify)} insanità
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} galskap (no)
• Sardinian: ^{(please verify)} macchìghine, ^{(please verify)} macchìne
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} sinnesgalenskap

Anagrams

• Amsdens, desmans, Masdens, Madsens