adverb
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in an insane or foolish manner
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with great speed and energy
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informal extremely or excessively
I love you madly
Etymology
Origin of madly
A Middle English word dating back to 1175–1225; see origin at mad, -ly
Explanation
To do something madly is to do it in a frenzied or crazy way. If you oversleep, you might throw your clothes on and run madly out the door to catch your bus. If your sister has a demented, angry expression on her face, you could say that her eyes are glowing madly. If your brother is rushing around the house, trying to hastily clean it up before your parents get home, you might say that he's madly throwing things in the garbage. Madly sometimes also means "intensely" or "excessively." In Shakespeare's famous play, Romeo and Juliet love each other madly.
Vocabulary lists containing madly
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.
McInnes spent much of his night walking madly about his technical area.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
But here I am, at age 62, truly, madly, deeply in love with Lionel Messi.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Adult children watching their single mom or dad fall madly in love can experience a mix of emotions.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
“We never stopped believing that somewhere out there, in some stranger’s backyard, our mother’s rosebush was blossoming madly, wildly, pressing one perfect red flower after another out into the late afternoon light.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 17, 2026
She should be cheering, running madly around, but she wasn’t.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
