deranged

adjective

de·​ranged di-ˈrānjd 

1

often offensive : mentally unsound : insane sense 1b

—not used technically

2

sometimes offensive : wildly odd or eccentric

His life was crowded, rather than peacefully isolated, and certainly never of an Olympian detachment, even though he was capable of quite deranged gestures of show-offy extravagance—such as buying an enormous house, more suitable for a banker than a painter …

—Robert Hughes

Or you could take part in a deranged computer game where you had to cycle after a huge beach ball, scoop it up and throw it through a hoop, scoring points for each goal.

—Natasha Ellis

3

dated, now sometimes offensive : disturbed or disordered in function, structure, or condition

My leg was propped up on a library chair at the time, as it was too deranged to bend.

—Cynthia Gorney

But other work indicates that, in addition, the B lymphocytes of lupus patients are inherently deranged …

—Moncef Zouali

Synonyms

• psychotic [sometimes offensive]
• insane
• mad
• maniacal
• maniac
• crazy [usually offensive]
• demented

Examples of deranged in a Sentence

a deranged prisoner who had been in that rat-infested hole for 20 years

Recent Examples on the Web

The villains are utterly sincere and deranged, vicious and human. —Brian Truitt, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025

For the last five years, Veneziale has been transforming his family’s suburban Philadelphia home into a theatrical Halloween walk-through of deranged clowns, lurking zombies, and jumpscares galore. —Laura Kiniry, Popular Science, 22 Oct. 2025

Morrissey explodes the comparatively respectable conventions of prior Frankenstein adaptations by embracing the deranged erotic and fascist implications of building and breeding new life. —Rory Doherty, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2025

Lennon was shot and killed by a deranged fan outside of their Upper West Side apartment building, the Dakota. —Adam B. Vary, Variety, 10 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined at sense 1