mad
adjective
mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented.
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mad
1 American
[mad]
/ mæd /
adjective
-
madder,
comparative
-
maddest
superlative
-
mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented.
-
enraged; greatly provoked or irritated; angry.
-
(of animals)
-
abnormally furious; ferocious.
a mad bull.
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affected with rabies; rabid.
a mad dog.
-
-
extremely foolish or unwise; imprudent; irrational.
a mad scheme to invade France.
- Synonyms:
- perilous, dangerous, unsafe, ill-advised
-
wildly excited or confused; frantic.
mad haste.
- Synonyms:
- frenzied
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overcome by desire, eagerness, enthusiasm, etc.; excessively or uncontrollably fond; infatuated.
He's mad about the opera.
-
wildly lively and merry; enjoyably hilarious.
to have a mad time at the Mardi Gras.
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(of wind, storms, etc.) furious in violence.
A mad gale swept across the channel.
-
Slang. much or many.
Mad props for getting this organization off the ground.
adverb
verb (used with object)
madded,
madding
verb (used without object)
madded,
madding
idioms
-
like mad, with great haste, impulsiveness, energy, or enthusiasm.
She ran like mad to catch the bus.
-
have a mad on, to be angry for a period of time; be in a bad mood.
The last time he had a mad on, it lasted for days.
-
mad as a hatter, completely insane.
MAD
2
American
[mad]
/ mæd /
noun
mad.
3
American
abbreviation
mad
1
British
/ mæd /
adjective
-
mentally deranged; insane
-
senseless; foolish
a mad idea
-
informal (often foll by at) angry; resentful
-
wildly enthusiastic (about) or fond (of)
mad about football
football-mad
-
extremely excited or confused; frantic
a mad rush
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temporarily overpowered by violent reactions, emotions, etc
mad with grief
-
-
unusually ferocious
a mad buffalo
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afflicted with rabies
-
-
informal with great energy, enthusiasm, or haste; wildly
-
crazily eccentric
verb
MAD
2
British
/ mæd /
acronym
mad
More Idioms
Usage
Mad meaning “enraged, angry” has been used since 1400, and this sense is a very common one. Because some teachers and usage critics insist that the only correct meaning of mad is “mentally disturbed, insane,” mad is often replaced by angry in formal contexts: The president is angry at Congress for overriding his veto.
Synonym Usage
Mad, crazy, insane are used to characterize wildly impractical or foolish ideas, actions, etc. Mad suggests senselessness and excess: The scheme of buying the bridge was absolutely mad. In informal usage, crazy suggests recklessness and impracticality: a crazy young couple. Insane is used with some opprobrium to express unsoundness and possible harmfulness: The new traffic system is simply insane.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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half-madnessnoun
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half-madadjective
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maddishadjective
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quasi-madadjective
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unmadadjective
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unmaddedadjective
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half-madlyadverb
-
quasi-madlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of mad
First recorded before 900; Middle English mad (adjective), madden (intransitive verb, derivative of the adjective); Old English gemǣd “made mad,” past participle of gemǣdan (unrecorded) “to make mad,” akin to gemād “mad, foolish”; cognate with Old Saxon gemēd, Old High German gimeit “foolish”
Explanation
If you're mad about something, you've lost your temper. If you've gone mad, you've lost your mind. Just like it's more common to be angry than to be insane, you're more likely to use mad to describe someone who's ticked off than to describe someone who has serious mental problems. If you say you're “mad about” something, you're saying you like it so much it distracts you.
Vocabulary lists containing mad
In the Mood? 100 Words to Describe Emotions
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Hooked on a Feeling, List 1
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
But its good witchery also contextualizes the quest for sanity in mad times like ours with comforting observations about occultism’s role during eras of social upheaval.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
Ms. Kingsolver wants to make you cry; she also wants to make you mad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
"I have got a pretty mad schedule," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
The client ended up just getting mad at everyone, and Anspach couldn’t continue as her adviser.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
It was not the time to make him mad, not when he was potentially holding the only piece of evidence needed to ruin my entire future.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
In the coming weeks, permanent plaza fences will be erected here — curvy stainless-steel structures that MAD Architects principal Dixon Junliang Lu compared to the lacy filigree of Art Nouveau architecture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD architects, it opens on Sept. 22.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Redzepi also resigned from the board of MAD, a non-profit organisation that he founded in 2011, which states on its website that it focuses on helping those who are new to the restaurant industry.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026
David Zucker: Not only that, we had some outside influences, like "MAD Magazine," that was a textbook for us.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2023
This reminded Jonah of a spoof he’d seen once in MAD magazine that was supposed to teach kids how to lie convincingly.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
“That’s when I got mad. Like, ‘Oh, my God.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
“It infuriates her. It doesn’t make me mad. I feel very fortunate that I can make time during the day and do these things.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
“I had to go through it that way. … My parents were both mad. That was weeks of earfuls: ‘Man, what are you doing?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
"It's pretty mad. You can't put a price on it," Laurent Saget, who runs Terres Blanches, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026
“The Carrows never rumbled how we were communicating, it drove them mad. We used to sneak out at night and put graffiti on the walls: Dumbledore’s Army, Still Recruiting, stuff like that. Snape hated it.”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
"I'm mad about the price, but I'm even madder about why it's so high," the 28-year-old told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 2, 2026
You can't be any madder at us than I am...
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2025
Depending on how things go, the situation might get even madder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
She grows a dye garden of rarer plants like indigo and madder, along with marigold flowers, sunflower seeds and mushrooms.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
I smelled barbecue before I reached the house, and that made me madder than ever, because I really love barbecue.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
It was the maddest the sport had gotten in ages at anything that didn’t involve Lane Kiffin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
In one of the maddest storylines of March, Monson’s team did not go quietly in what was supposed to be his final week on the job.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2024
In this maddest of Marches, it’s the first time since seeding began in 1979 that no team seeded better than No. 4 made the Final Four.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 26, 2023
“That was probably the maddest I’ve ever been.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2021
I brought my hand back down and it was holding the biggest, maddest hornet I’d ever seen.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
It madded me to pine here, making rhymes, while outside the sweet wind whispered: "Come out, Michael—come out into the green delight!"
From Cardigan by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
But Claudia's nonsense madded me, though her speech had been no broader than was fashionable among a gentry so closely in touch with London, where speech, and manners, too, were broader still.
From The Little Red Foot by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
Let Hist'ry tell where rival kings command, And dubious title shakes the madded land.
From English Satires by William Henry Oliphant Smeaton
As for this Mrs. Hamilton, it madded me to hear of her.
From Cardigan by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
Take such a phrase as "the madded land"; there, indeed, is a word coined by the noble rage as the last century evoked it.
From Flower of the Mind by Alice Christiana Thompson Meynell
Clustered barnacle-like at the end of a glorious arc of sand, Beadnell, along with the neighbouring villages of Bamburgh and Seahouses, has long been a magnet for those seeking refuge from the madding crowd.
From BBC ● Feb. 25, 2026
Far from the madding crowd, not to mention from the alluring presence of his MI6 handler and former lover, Faith Green, Gabriel works away in his cottage on a travel book about the world’s rivers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2025
If you really want to avoid the madding crowds go offseason.
From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2019
When I asked her what facet of horticulture she likes most, she moved even farther from the madding crowd.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 5, 2018
It was exactly the madding crowd that Bobby wished would stay afar.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
