frantic
Americanadjective
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desperate or wild with excitement, passion, fear, pain, etc.; frenzied.
- Synonyms:
- distraught, disturbed, agitated, overwrought
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Archaic. insane; mad.
adjective
-
distracted with fear, pain, joy, etc
-
marked by or showing frenzy
frantic efforts
-
archaic insane
Other Word Forms
- frantically adverb
- franticness noun
Etymology
Origin of frantic
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English frantik, frenetik, phrentique (the spelling with a appears in the 14th century but is unexplained), from Old French frenetique ( French frénétique ), from Latin phrenēticus, phrenīticus “mad, delirious,” from Greek phrenētikós, phrenītikós “suffering from inflammation of the brain or delerium” ( phrenitis ( def. ) ); frenzy, -tic
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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.
At around 11 p.m. on a rainy night, Sukraj Rai, 42, a schoolteacher in Rangpo Forest, began getting frantic calls warning him that the Teesta was rising and that the Chungthang dam had broken.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
But from there, elation turned to frustration when Ryan Manning's foul on Czech skipper Ladislav Krejci enabled Patrik Schick to slot home a momentum-swinging penalty in a frantic first half.
From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026
So in the frantic hours before officers took her parents away to immigration detention, her mom turned to their pastor and his wife.
From Salon • Mar. 24, 2026
Twice in the last 50 years, crises in the Mideast, one of them centered in Iran, have turned Americans into frantic hunter-gatherers for another necessity: fuel for their gas tanks.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2026
Her expression became frantic as she spoke; and, he yielding to her, she pulled him down sitting on the bed side, and clung to him fiercely.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
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.
