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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.

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
psychopath Cultural  

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

Other Word Forms

  • psychopathic adjective
  • psychopathically adverb

Etymology

Origin of psychopath

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

Compare meaning

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The 34-year-old, who finished 21st in Beijing four years ago, came second in Friday's training, proclaiming himself a very satisfied "psychopath" after overcoming mental and physical challenges.

From Barron's • Feb. 6, 2026

You’d be unwise to look to the movies for economic insight—this one amounts to an extended fatuous argument that an individual who behaved like a corporate restructuring would be a psychopath.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 24, 2025

My Hollywood ending was far from glamorous: me, catatonic on Nick’s couch, realizing I had given it all up for an honest-to-God psychopath.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2025

A simpler way of putting it is that Pelicot has an antisocial personality disorder - a term preferred by psychiatrists these days to words such as psychopath or sociopath.

From BBC • Dec. 20, 2024

She glanced over her shoulder at Cain, who was joking with Grave as if he weren’t a demon-summoning psychopath.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.