loony
1 Americannoun
-
loonies
plural
adjective
-
lunatic; insane
-
foolish or ridiculous
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of loony
Explanation
Someone who's loony is nutty or wacky — it's a slang term for "crazy." Your loony aunt Mabel might prefer wearing a teddy bear costume when she goes to the grocery store. Loony is an informal, derogatory term for mentally ill, but it can also mean silly or outrageous. You could say, "My parents are loony — they call me three times a day and are always sending me photos of their little dog dressed in doll clothes," or talk about the loony story you read for your book group. Loony is an American-coined word, short for lunatic and also referencing the cry of the bird called a loon.
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.
See Examples For:
To the uninitiated, it can seem downright loony.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
However, because of the Globes’ loony category smash-up in the supporting performance categories, Cooper’s triumph came at the expense of “The White Lotus” star Walton Goggins and Tramell Tillman’s Emmy-winning work on “Severance.”
From Salon ● Jan. 12, 2026
In 2020, people went loony for the PlayStation 5 and the Popeyes chicken sandwich in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2025
And I don’t think his successor will match those heights, even if he or she isn’t quite as loony as we’re speculating.
From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2024
“You named this duck? Biddy, I swear they gonna lock you in a loony bin. Biddy kept on a-chattering. “You the prettiest baby duck in the whole wide world.
From "Girls Like Us" by Gail Giles
Everyone thinks they can do it: players, parents, students, boosters, administrators, TV yappers, dogs, cats, radio loonies, and sports columnists at financial newspapers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
He thought that he could corral the loonies that he helped empower; he never considered the possibility that they might wind up coopting him.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2021
Her father John Barrymore, of the Barrymore acting dynasty – “The great line of loonies from which I come,” as she puts it – wasn’t around much.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 29, 2017
It’s not so much about separating the loonies from the slightly manic.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2010
Kurt dug out a handful of coins and picked out enough loonies and toonies to make ten dollars, and handed it over.
From Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow
It’s possible it’d be even loonier than what we have now.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 7, 2023
What we knew was already so nuts that it's hard to believe it could be any loonier --- but it is.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2022
And a delightful closing-credits sequence full of Badu outtakes gives us a glimpse of the looser, loonier comedy we could’ve more fully enjoyed if the film weren’t so committed to its dousing-the-spitfire formula.
From Slate ● Feb. 7, 2019
Yes, in its loonier moments this movie is exactly that awesome, although I can't decide whether it's setting out to be the "Showgirls" of medieval-fairy tale movies or simply getting there by accident.
From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2011
Three quick thoughts emerged: it's a bit early in the day for that, he's loonier than a luger, and we'll not see skeleton in the Olympics anytime soon.
From Time Magazine Archive
Few if any of even Kim Jong-un’s looniest tirades match these posts for their wild-eyed savagery.
From Slate ● Apr. 6, 2026
She added that "one of the looniest proposals on the table is that you can actually cut down forests to turn into furniture" - with companies claiming they store carbon.
From BBC ● Dec. 8, 2022
“The looniest guys you’ll talk to in wrestling are really about winning, and all else doesn’t matter.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2016
And in perhaps his looniest promise, he can have Noah living at Yaddo by the end of the week — for as long as he wants!
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2015
“We had to pick the looniest of the bunch, didn’t we?”
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
