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

Last summer, 23-year-old Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster, who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. —February 25, NPR, 25 Feb. 2026

The deranged demeanor accompanying her rude responses under oath deserves an Oscar nomination in the cringe and horror categories. —Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 21 Feb. 2026

With the exponential rise of deranged talking heads, private prisons, Amazon-like concentration camps, Cop City, local police trained by the Israeli Army, and AI technology to develop inconceivable weapons, the apocalypse does not appear far off. —Literary Hub, 19 Feb. 2026

The film follows Eileen who, reeling from a breakup, enrols in an intense gym class run by a charismatic but deranged coach. —Alex Ritman, Variety, 9 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined at sense 1