free from mental derangement; having a sound, healthy mind.
a sane person.
having or showing reason, sound judgment, or good sense.
sane advice.
sound; healthy.
sound in mind; free from mental disturbance
having or showing reason, good judgment, or sound sense
obsolete healthy
First recorded in 1620–30, sane is from the Latin word sānus healthy
Official shortening of its byname Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy
A sane person doesn't have any screws loose — in other words, they're free of mental illness and in a reasonable state of mind. You probably know that the word insane means crazy. Well, the opposite of insane is sane — or not crazy. A sane person is of sound mind and is mentally healthy. Sane people have good judgment, are reasonable, and can tell the difference between what's real and imagined. Whenever someone commits a crime or does something totally outlandish, people usually wonder if they're sane or not.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Aviv describes becoming sane as “a kind of narrative collapse, a confrontation with a personal history that is no longer recognizable.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
"No sane person would bring their greatest strength to the negotiating table," it said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 13, 2026
Yet Forster maintained his equilibrium and held to his admirably sane conception of the human condition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The BuzzMeter panel long advocated for Rhea Seehorn to win for her performance as the sane, professional Kim Wexler, in danger of being dragged into the main character’s vortex in “Better Call Saul.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
It was as though the sane well-balanced girl had gone mad before their eyes.
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
Windsor was also an ambassador of the mental health charity SANE, which will receive all profits from the evening.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2024
Shelley, a nurse in rural Eagle County, Colorado, went to her car and called a telehealth company to arrange an appointment with a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2023
“I challenged the psychiatrists on that. I know a lot about schizophrenia because I set up SANE, which was originally for schizophrenia. I said, ‘Have you read what they’ve written?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2022
The specialty includes sexual assault nurse examiners, known by the acronym SANE.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 30, 2015
SANE, J. MARTIN-, executor of the Estate of Abel Bonnard.
From U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1963 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office
It’s a concept borrowed from restaurant service — those end-of-night tasks that set you up for a smoother, saner start the next day — and it immediately appealed to me.
From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026
The tournament long known as March Madness has a problem: It has never been saner than it is right now.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Dispatches from a saner time of millennial life like “Up Down” and “Can’t Believe It” landed like an envelope of Instax photos from a half-remembered house party.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
Indira, with the saner follow-up: “Dorothy, don’t get in the fight.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2024
Kids traveled from all over the city, north, east, and west, leaving behind their neighborhood skirmishes for a school they hoped might be a little safer, a little saner than the one closer to home.
From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater
“The sanest way forward — you have to learn how to split yourself up into other selves, like an earthworm,” her mentor advised her years earlier, when she was about to graduate.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
Wakefield What happens when the sanest person working in a psych ward starts to lose his grip?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2021
“Having a therapist has taught me to be less cruel to myself. It’s not like therapy has made me the world’s sanest person; it’s just made me slightly less insane.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 14, 2021
We can look at all of this and hope that our sanest elected officials will use their power to make life better for the whole realm.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2021
My mother’s sanest position is to wear only the necessary parts of the outfit and leave off the rest.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
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.
