psychosis

noun

psy·​cho·​sis sī-ˈkō-səs 

plural psychoses sī-ˈkō-ˌsēz 

: a serious mental illness (such as schizophrenia) characterized by defective or lost contact with reality often with hallucinations or delusions

Examples of psychosis in a Sentence

The patient suffers from some kind of psychosis.

Recent Examples on the Web

Lynne Ramsay’s upcoming Die, My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence as a new mother gripped by a postpartum depression that devolves into psychosis, looks set to expand that canon. —Emma Specter, Vogue, 18 Oct. 2025

Elsewhere in the interview, the Oscar winner explained how her role as Grace alongside Pattinson's Jackson came about in the psychological drama, which is an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel about a new mother who develops postpartum depression and enters psychosis. —Becca Longmire, PEOPLE, 17 Oct. 2025

Her client is suffering from severe postpartum depression, having a psychosis! —Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald, 15 Oct. 2025

Linda’s unraveling escalates when her troubled client Caroline (Danielle Macdonald) emails her a video of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in 2001 after developing postpartum psychosis. —Matthew Jacobs, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2025

Word History

Etymology

New Latin

First Known Use

1847, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for psychosis

• cirrhosis
• fibrosis
• gliosis
• hypnosis
• ichthyosis
• ketosis
• kurtosis
• lordosis
• meiosis
• miosis
• mitosis
• mycosis

Kids Definition

psychosis

noun

psy·​cho·​sis sī-ˈkō-səs 

plural psychoses -ˈkō-ˌsēz 

: a serious mental illness marked by loss of or greatly lessened ability to test whether what one is thinking and feeling about the real world is really true

Medical Definition

psychosis

noun

psy·​cho·​sis sī-ˈkō-səs 

plural psychoses -ˌsēz 

: a serious mental illness (as schizophrenia) characterized by defective or lost contact with reality often with hallucinations or delusions