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 of deranged

• psychotic
• insane
• mad
• maniacal
• crazy

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

What might have been early on predictable for Kuplowsky with Kick On eventually turns wonderfully weird and deranged. — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2026

Rising antisemitic hate-crime stats suggest the proliferation of deranged bigots terrorizing the Jewish community, some who may go on to commit deadly crimes if they are not apprehended. — Rachel Sales, New York Daily News, 6 Aug. 2026

The fact that its deranged obsession was with test answers, not paper clips, does not make the hack less alarming. — Stephen Witt, New Yorker, 30 July 2026

The Strokes’ new album, Reality Awaits, is kind of like the darker, more deranged sibling of their Grammy-winning 2020 output, The New Abnormal. — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 27 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined at sense 1