loony
1 Americannoun
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:
Owens brings a blend of loony energy and sincere malevolence that Cooper can’t quite muster.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2025
Reminders of such loony moments as Wilder’s “blue blanket” meltdown underscore the actor’s unbridled genius.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
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
Each is rated on a scale of bees — one for sleepy, five for loony — in honor of the insects that tortured him in the 2006 remake of “The Wicker Man.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 26, 2023
But then again, I’m already in the loony bin; how practical am I going to get?
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
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
And if we’re not, what can we say to politely change the way people see our child, and autism as a whole, without sounding like preachy loonies?
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2019
Think how many loonies that would fetch now.
From The Guardian ● May 19, 2017
It’s not so much about separating the loonies from the slightly manic.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2010
Wounded Tommies, gassed Arabs, some women and children, and a few lunatics, genuine cock-eyed loonies from the 11 asylum.
From Waiting for Daylight by Tomlinson, H. M. (Henry Major)
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
He’s the looniest character — primarily because he’s so out of touch with what’s been happening in the world — and yet he’s also the most endearingly human.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 6, 2017
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
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.
