mad
adjective
Simple meaning
Extremely foolish or unwise.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
madIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmæd
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
Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
Wildly confused or excited.
of animals
Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
of a compass needle
Having impaired polarity.
colloquialusually with for or about
Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.
ukirelandinformal
Bizarre; incredible.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
Used this way, mad is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Nearby words
- harebrained , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: extremely foolish or unwise
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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.