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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

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:

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.

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Vocabulary lists containing psychopath

Common Senses: Path ("Feeling")

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Body Language: Psych ("Mind")

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Robin Williams (1951-2014) Tribute List

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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.

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

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

On criminal psychologist Robert Hare’s famous Psychopath Test you get zero for No, 1 for Partial, and 2 for Yes.

From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2018

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

From Scientific American • Oct. 12, 2012

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.