sociopath
Americannoun
noun
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Etymology
Origin of sociopath
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How does sociopath compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A sociopath is a person with a mental illness that manifests in extremely antisocial behavior and the inability to distinguish right from wrong. You're probably right to be afraid of a sociopath. Pathology means illness, and so socio- pathology means social illness. If someone is a sociopath, that means that they have a social sickness––they lack the ability to be social. Many movies and TV crime shows feature plots involving sociopaths, but hopefully the TV is the only place you ever encounter sociopaths.
Vocabulary lists containing sociopath
Common Senses: Path ("Feeling")
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Frankenwords: Words with Roots from Different Languages
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We the People: Soc
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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:
“For over three years, Anna’s family and friends have waited for justice. Today the jury has spoken, returned its guilty verdict for first-degree murder against this sociopath and justice has arrived,” Los Angeles County Dist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2026
The actor could easily put his skills to use playing a duplicitous sociopath in a psychological drama, but as a comedy “Killing” is simply dead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Asked on Friday why he used "sociopath", Mr Linehan replied: "Because the things he was involved in caused great misery to people."
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2025
It is, unfortunately, the heyday of the harmful sociopath and the abusive clinical narcissist.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2025
And he wasn’t a nutcase, he wasn’t a sociopath, he wasn’t an out-cast.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
If the way people become incredibly wealthy is by just being con artists — as opposed to sociopaths, which is how they used to get incredibly wealthy — it’s even less attractive.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
One of the theater’s more prominent sociopaths gets a makeover in “Hedda,” director Nia DaCosta’s reimagining of “Hedda Gabler,” with an approach that opens up the play—and an interpretive can of worms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
If “Joker: Folie à Deux” showed us anything, it’s that there can be blissful magic even when two sociopaths fall in love.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2024
But sociopaths do exist—and in American society they become billionaires.
From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2024
But, except for Harry, all of us, including my father, had been called sociopaths at some time in our lives.
From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson
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.
