insane
adjective
Simple meaning
Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnsaynSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈseɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
Used by or relating to insane people.
Causing insanity or madness.
informal
Characterized by excess or the utmost folly; ridiculous; impractical.
informal
Enraged; furious.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
In this sense insane is used as a clinical description rather than a judgement. Outside professional contexts the same word carries much more force, so it is easy for a reader to hear criticism where none was meant.
- Emotional tone
- Context-dependent
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Medicine/healthcare
- Science
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- mad , used mainly in Regional English
- dotty , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use insane
- “Was declared insane.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Relatively permanent disorder of the mind.
In an insane manner.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.