split personality
Americannoun
noun
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the tendency to change rapidly in mood or temperament
-
a nontechnical term for multiple personality
Etymology
Origin of split personality
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
“I walked out understanding that this was the split personality of my life,” Newsom writes in “Young Man in a Hurry.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2026
Gisèle Pelicot sees things more simply, embracing the idea, put forward at the trial, of a split personality.
From BBC • Dec. 9, 2024
The hall of mirrors, the split personality, the hidden life.
From New York Times • Jun. 3, 2023
The film's split personality is a problem because it wants to be original, and it ends up being overly familiar.
From Salon • May 12, 2023
"Elly, Elly, Elly," the first voice mumbled, while the other voice went on hissing, "Miss Greenwood, Miss Greenwood, Miss Greenwood," as if I had a split personality or something.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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.
