psychopath

American  

[sahy-kuh-path] / ˈsaɪ kəˌpæθ /

noun

1. a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

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psychopath British  

/ ˈsaɪkəʊˌpæθ /

noun

1. Also called: sociopath.  a person afflicted with a personality disorder characterized by a tendency to commit antisocial and sometimes violent acts and a failure to feel guilt for such acts

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psychopath Cultural  

1. A mentally unbalanced person who is inclined toward antisocial and criminal behavior. (Compare sociopath.)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• psychopathically
  adverb
• psychopathic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of psychopath

First recorded in 1880–85; psycho- + -path

Compare meaning

How does psychopath compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• sociopath vs. psychopath

Explanation

It would be unfortunate to end up alone in an elevator with a psychopath. A psychopath is a mentally ill person with violent tendencies. Psychopath is a psychiatric term that refers to a person suffering from a mental illness involving violent behavior or various kinds of abnormal social interactions. A person who's been diagnosed as a psychopath has a lot of trouble interacting with other people and living a normal life. The noun psychopath is also used casually to mean simply a bizarre or unpredictably violent person. The word comes from the Greek words for "mind" and "suffering": psykhe and pathos.

Example Sentences

Rhys: There’s a couple of ways — a light dabble of narcissists, sociopaths, “The Psychopath Test” by Jon Ronson.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2025

Ms Anholt wrote the handbook How To Leave Your Psychopath, which looks at coercive control and abusive relationships, last year, and her debut novel Red Flags is due to be published next year.

From BBC • Sep. 14, 2023

Al Dunlap, a former chief executive of the Sunbeam appliance company and a man who brought a predator’s joy to firing employees, was a key figure in a book called “The Psychopath Test.”

From New York Times • Feb. 25, 2022

There's a documentary about him that's called "Psychopath," and all of the information in it is completely wrong.

From Salon • Sep. 27, 2021

You can assess your own psychopathic traits by participating in The Psychopath Challenge.

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2012

Related Words

• lunatic
• maniac
• psycho
• sociopath