madman
Americannoun
-
madmen
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of madman
First recorded in 1300–50, madman is from Middle English madd man. See mad, man
Explanation
Madman is an old fashioned, derogatory term for a severely mentally ill person. These days, calling someone with a serious psychiatric illness a madman would be offensive. You're most likely to hear dangerous criminals described as madmen, although it's also common to use this word for someone who acts recklessly: "Look how fast that madman is driving!" Another way to use madman is to emphasize the intensity of something: "She worked on that paper like a madman, writing the entire thing in just a few hours."
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:
“You can’t let a madman or you can’t let a mad ideology have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
"Bibi acted like a madman," a White House official told the news website Axios.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025
But heavy metal’s favorite madman leaves us with his reminder that “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll.”
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2025
Not only did she work with Murphy, perhaps television’s most reliable madman, but she collaborated with some of the most prestigious directors working today.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2024
No one, it turned out, but that madman Yossarian, who brought him down with a flying tackle one day as he was scooting along the bottom of the ditch to his trailer for lunch.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
It’s another thing to go elbow to elbow with a group of elite madmen barreling down an Alpine pass at 50 miles per hour.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
Yohji is one of fashion’s great madmen and I wanted to take the trousers to someone who would look at it as a job and not a bizarre art piece.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
Things got pretty weird on the food scene, too, with the R&D labs for the nation’s fast-food chains seemingly overtaken by Frankensteinian madmen.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 7, 2023
There are few more efficient ways to unleash the demons, madmen, and ghosts hidden in the darkest crevices of the human psyche than to inject anxiety into our imaginations.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2022
It is the beginning of the end for Hitler and his madmen.
From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok
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.
