insanity

[ in-san-i-tee ]

noun

, plural in·san·i·ties.

1. (not in technical use as a medical diagnosis) the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.

   Synonyms: craziness, aberration, mania, madness, lunacy

2. Law. such unsoundness of mind as frees one from legal responsibility, as for committing a crime, or as signals one's lack of legal capacity, as for entering into a contractual agreement.
3. Psychiatry. (formerly) psychosis.
4. 1. extreme foolishness:

      Trying to drive through that traffic would be pure insanity.

   2. a foolish or senseless action, policy, statement, etc.:

      We've heard decades of insanities in our political discourse.

insanity

/ ɪnˈsænɪtɪ /

noun

1. relatively permanent disorder of the mind; state or condition of being insane
2. law a defect of reason as a result of mental illness, such that a defendant does not know what he or she is doing or that it is wrong
3. utter folly; stupidity

Word History and Origins

Origin of insanity¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin insānitāt-, stem of insānitās “unsoundness of mind, insanity”; in- ³, sanity

Example Sentences

ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky called the Bucs “the walking definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

From Washington Post

The definition of insanity — doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result — is an apt description of the post-election punditry.

From Washington Post

The insanity of 2020 has, among other things, hammered home some basic truths about the art of management, starting with the fact that it was evolving rapidly long before a pandemic upended workplaces around the world.

From Quartz

It’s insanity, but Whirlpool just sold more bathtubs in a recession than in an expansion.

From Fortune

I just wanted to get out and be one of the first ones to cast my vote to hopefully end the insanity we are living in under the current administration.

From Washington Post

AIDS insanity:  When running for the US Senate in 1992, Huckabee called for a quarantine of people who had AIDS.

From The Daily Beast

Insanity, after all, is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, right?

From The Daily Beast

But as Nietzsche once wrote, “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs, it is the rule.”

From The Daily Beast

Only one first world country would allow such insanity to continue.

From The Daily Beast

On appeal in 2006, she was found to be not guilty by reason of insanity and remanded to a psychiatric hospital.

From The Daily Beast

I cannot reconcile the idea of a tender Heavenly Father with the known horrors of war, slavery, pestilence, and insanity.

From Project Gutenberg

James Otis recovered from a temporary fit of insanity only to grow strangely suspicious of Samuel Adams.

From Project Gutenberg

No family history of epilepsy, insanity, nervous or other hereditary disorders in 59 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg

Thus, to import insanity or incompetency to a professional man, or that a public official is dishonest and corrupt is actionable.

From Project Gutenberg

It seems not unlikely that the underlying cause of so-called idiopathic insanity is usually some change within the brain cells.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• absurdity
• alienation
• craziness
• folly
• frenzy
• hysteria
• irresponsibility
• lunacy
• madness
• mental disorder