schizophrenic

American  

[skit-suh-fren-ik] / ˌskɪt səˈfrɛn ɪk /

adjective

1. Psychiatry. of or relating to schizophrenia.

   Not all of these patients are schizophrenic.

2. of or relating to conflicting or inconsistent elements; characterized by unusual disparity.

   It wavers from comedy to thriller to docudrama—a totally schizophrenic plot!

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noun

Psychiatry.

• schizophrenics
  plural

1. a person with schizophrenia.

   Schizophrenics are often unable to focus on certain objects.

schizophrenic British  

/ ˌskɪtsəʊˈfrɛnɪk /

adjective

1. exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia

2. informal experiencing or maintaining contradictory attitudes, emotions, etc

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noun

1. a schizophrenic person

Usage

It is preferable to refer to a person as someone with a diagnosis of schizophrenia rather than as a schizophrenic . The general use of the word to mean 'contradictory' is also best avoided. Suitable alternatives are contradictory , inconsistent , incoherent

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• schizophrenics
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of schizophrenic

First recorded in 1910–15; schizophren(ia) ( def. ) + -ic ( def. )

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Explanation

If you are schizophrenic, you suffer from a mental disorder that includes auditory hallucinations and paranoid behavior. Schizophrenics used to be thought to have "split personalities," and the roots of the word attests to that early understanding. The word schizophrenia combines the Greek skhizein, "split," and phren, "mind." Now, the disease is understood differently, but schizophrenic is still sometimes used to refer to anything that changes erratically. A movie that's alternately enthralling and boring might be said to be schizophrenic in its pacing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

schizophrenic schizophrenics

Pace had “a rather schizophrenic career,” according to the Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television by Bob McCann.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026

“You almost have a schizophrenic personality on AI right now,” Kolano said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

Rosemead explores the relationship between a terminally-ill mother and her schizophrenic teenage son.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2025

The Times quickly issued two formal corrections: The link to incitement was not clear, or plausibly fuzzy, it turned out: The shooter was not a partisan zealot but a schizophrenic.

From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2025

One world’s schizophrenic is another’s medicine man, no?

From "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older

Increased lactate levels and reduced pH in postmortem brains of schizophrenics: medication confounds.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2024

There were homeless people who had been living in tents in the woods, schizophrenics in need of medication, burn victims whose houses had burned down because of gas leaks.

From New York Times ● Mar. 10, 2023

Based on a controversial early 1960s psychiatric case study, “Three Christs” stars Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford as institutionalized paranoid schizophrenics, each of whom believes himself to be Jesus.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 4, 2020

The scan didn’t prove that Hinckley had schizophrenia, experts said—but this sort of brain atrophy was more common among schizophrenics than among the general population.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 7, 2019

And, indeed, there may be something wrong with the apparatus in schizophrenics; they have, it is said, an unfamiliar odor, recently attributed to trans-3- methylhexanoic acid, in their sweat.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

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