psychopath

American  

[sahy-kuh-path] / ˈsaɪ kəˌpæθ /

noun

• psychopaths
  plural

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

• psychopathic
  adjective
• psychopathically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• psychopaths
  plural

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

See Examples For:

psychopath psychopaths

Creasy said he had "made a series of very serious allegations", became abusive and "referred to the fact he had been diagnosed as a psychopath".

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

Dressed in a shabby old coat and chic beret—“a look halfway between woman of mystery and lobster fisher”—Nora aims to thwart a dangerous psychopath while protecting the policeman with whom she’s increasingly smitten.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

But Bardem’s Max is a different breed of psychopath from those previously embodied by Roberts DeNiro and Mitchum.

From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026

Not everyone with psychopathic traits commits crimes, and not every person who commits a crime is a psychopath, but research has consistently linked psychopathy with a higher risk of violent behavior.

From Science Daily ● May 10, 2026

“You know, you might not want to share your concern that Joaquin’s a psychopath with people we just met.”

From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway

“Edgar Allan Poe wrote these books about psychopaths and killers. Authors do not equal their persona.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Historically, we have pathologized people who lack such impulses; they are known as psychopaths, and their qualities have been deemed incompatible with a functioning society.

From Slate ● Jan. 9, 2026

That seems to tie into your reference to psychopaths, as well as extreme narcissists.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2025

Among the various courses on Christopher's website is one which teaches people how to "overcome and destroy the devastating effects of narcissists and psychopaths" at a cost of £280.

From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2024

Karhidish psychologists, though lacking mindspeech and thus like, blind surgeons, were ingenious with drugs, hypnosis, spotshock, cryonic touch, and various mental therapies; I asked if these two psychopaths could not be cured.

From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Related Words

• lunatic
• maniac
• psycho
• sociopath