lunacy

[loo-nuh-see]

noun

plural

lunacies 

1. insanity; mental disorder.

   Synonyms: aberration, mania, madness, craziness, dementia, derangement
   Antonyms: sanity, rationality

2. intermittent insanity, formerly believed to be related to phases of the moon.

   Antonyms: sanity, rationality

3. extreme foolishness or an instance of it.

   Her decision to resign was sheer lunacy.

   Synonyms: stupidity, folly

4. unsoundness of mind sufficient to incapacitate one for civil transactions: a former legal term.

lunacy

/ ˈluːnəsɪ /

noun

1. (formerly) any severe mental illness

2. foolishness or a foolish act

Word History and Origins

Origin of lunacy¹

First recorded in 1535–45; lun(atic) + -acy

Example Sentences

“Bloodline” reminds me of the breed of darkly comic postwar novels by Robert Coover, William H. Gass, Harry Crews and others, in which regional manias stand in for a broader national lunacy.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Where “I Think You Should Leave” operates like a jukebox, “The Chair Company” is a concept album extrapolating a single sight gag into a swirl of lunacy on par with an extended free jazz performance.

Read more on Salon

But to qualify for the genre itself—and satisfy the base demands of the base—a movie is required to both accelerate toward lunacy and entertain a certain amount of mayhem.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

These days, as a person working to improve our court system and understand what really creates safety, the lunacy of cash bail is more than apparent.

Read more on Salon

Is it hard, though, to freeze all the negativity and all the lunacy that has been directed at you?

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• absurdity 
• folly 
• foolishness 
• idiocy 
• insanity 
• mania 
• silliness 
• stupidity