insanity

noun

in-ˈsa-nə-tē How to pronounce insanity (audio)
Definition of insanitynext
1
as in dementia
a serious mental disorder that prevents one from living a safe and normal life his incurable insanity requires that he spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in absurdity
a foolish act or idea everyone laughed at the latest insanity from the town eccentric

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in madness
lack of good sense or judgment had the insanity to think that taking over a government building in protest of our foreign policy was a good idea

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of insanity Running into a brick wall 67 times is the football version of insanity. — Sports Columnist, Austin American Statesman, 16 Oct. 2026 Looking for a blueprint of how to win the World Series is insanity. — Ian Miller Outkick, FOXNews.com, 15 Oct. 2026 And that was like Vitalogy, probably the peak of the insanity. — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 6 Oct. 2026 Counsel was enraged that his gambit was foiled by one jury holdout on the insanity argument. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 2 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for insanity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for insanity
  1. dementia
  2. absurdity
  3. madness
  4. hysteria
  5. stupidity
  6. simplicity
  7. schizophrenia
  8. idiocy
Noun
  • How GLP-1s May Affect Brain Health Analyses of large patient datasets have associated GLP-1 receptor agonists with a reduced risk of cognitive impairment and dementia.
    — Daniella Gray, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Nov. 2026
  • Some Facebook commenters sympathized about the dementia struggle, many others expressed hope of a future business.
    — Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of dementia
Noun
  • Firstman excels at highlighting the absurdity of celebrity and the pretension of coastal media types.
    — Matt Donnelly, Variety, 4 Nov. 2026
  • To expose the assumptions, prejudices and absurdities of those interacting with them in the real world — whether on the right or left, in a position of tremendous power or someone off the street.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of absurdity
Noun
  • This kind of excision, this near total erasure of the Black voice, can turn one toward madness, certainly toward bitterness.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2026
  • From the Kahn Brothers comes a brainy comedy about fathers and sons, science and madness, and second chances.
    — Patrick Hipes, Deadline, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of madness
Noun
  • Rather, tarantism was a form of mass hysteria, a situation where a group of people share the same intense fear, anxiety, or physical sickness—like dizziness, shaking, or stomach aches—even though there is no real physical or medical grounds for it.
    — Laura Kiniry, Popular Science, 10 Nov. 2026
  • The sinister presence torments the family, and when their two-year-old suddenly vanishes, fear spirals into hysteria and paranoia as the family confronts a terrifying force that has turned their connected world against them.
    — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of hysteria
Noun
  • The power delivery remains impressively smooth, but there is a lot more of it, and the speed builds with the effortless stupidity electric motors are so good at delivering.
    — Kevin Fanady, New Atlas, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Learning that countless more people will lose their lives on account of his neglect, greed, and stupidity, he is pressed, reluctantly, into a most self-serving mode of damage control.
    — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of stupidity
Noun
  • One can treat it as an indelible feature of human psychology, an unavoidable by-product of our appetite for simplicity and affiliation.
    — Paul Bloom, New Yorker, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Despite the beery bonhomie and singalong-friendly simplicity of their tunes, the Twisted Teens are grappling with an increasingly complex tangle of contradictions and tensions.
    — Stuart Berman, Pitchfork, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of simplicity
Noun
  • Xia hopes the findings will one day lead to treatments for people who are especially prone to mental fatigue, such as those with depression and schizophrenia.
    — Cody Cottier, Scientific American, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Driving, instead, might be thought of as a spectacular form of schizophrenia.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of schizophrenia
Noun
  • There's always been an element of complete idiocy in the culture.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
  • Forty years on, Spy magazine is best remembered, not unjustly, as the first entity to call out Trump for his tackiness, villainy, and arrant idiocy.
    — David Kamp, Air Mail, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of idiocy

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insanities
insanity
insatiable
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Cite this Entry

“Insanity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insanity. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on insanity

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about insanity

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