psychotic
Americanadjective
-
Psychiatry. relating to, characterized by, or exhibiting psychosis: psychotic symptoms;
a psychotic patient;
psychotic symptoms;
psychotic delusion.
- Synonyms:
- non compos mentis, demented, deranged, disturbed, mad, mentally ill, psychopathic, insane
- Antonyms:
- lucid, rational, compos mentis, sane
-
(loosely) mentally unstable.
The man who threw a stone through the convenience store window must be psychotic.
-
intensely upset, anxious, or angry; crazy.
My dad gets so psychotic when I come home even a little bit late.
- Antonyms:
- self-possessed, calm
noun
-
psychotics
plural
adjective
noun
Usage
It is preferable to talk about a person experiencing psychosis rather than a psychotic , which reduces a person's individuality
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of psychotic
First recorded in 1885–85; psych(osis) + -otic
Explanation
As an adjective, psychotic describes something that is of or related to an abnormal mental condition often characterized by delusions or hallucinations. Psychotic episodes, for example, are periods of mental instability when people lose contact with reality. Psychotic is based on the Greek word psykhe, which means mind. As a noun, psychotic is a person suffering from psychosis — that is delusions, hallucinations, or any mental state that includes a loss of reality. Although the noun officially refers to the medical diagnosis, it is sometimes used as a slang to refer to anyone behaving in an erratic manner: "Your friend is a total psychotic! He was jumping on the tables at lunch and shouting song lyrics."
Vocabulary lists containing psychotic
Body Language: Psych ("Mind")
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This Week In Words: Current Events Vocab for December 26, 2020—January 1, 2021
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The Martian Chronicles
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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 for Kusama, art wasn’t a path chosen for fame and fortune; art was a sublimation and a salve for her compulsive tendencies and psychotic episodes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Coincidentally, last March, Ward gave the green light for Carruthers’ execution after his attorneys had argued that Carruthers was not competent to be executed because he was “consumed by psychotic delusions.”
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
And to imply that all editors are psychotic, it’s just nonsensical.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Laidlaw said: "He was in a psychotic state and had lost contact with reality. He was not able to distinguish what was real and what was not. He was hearing voices and had delusional beliefs."
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
And then his mother had a psychotic episode and his grandfather died and it was just too much all at once.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
And I think that playing psychotics and playing villains allowed me to really understand that aspect of him.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2022
By and large, the world is increasingly run by ignoramuses, wackos and psychotics.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2019
He became known as the Donz and found friendship in an AOL community made up of what he jokingly described as “like-minded psychotics who are as interested in this guy as I am.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2017
While much has been made of its links to other jihadists in Africa and elsewhere, these alliances have little practical effect, being little more than the distant salutes from one group of psychotics to another.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2016
“Yes. If hallucinations can appear this ‘real’ to us, to anyone, if hallucinations are catching and almost believable, it’s no wonder they mistook us for psychotics.
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
