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madcap

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Acting or done in a wild, silly, or impulsive way.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

madkap

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmædkæp

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Capricious, impulsive, or reckless; also, bizarre, crazy, zany; or foolish, idiotic.

noun

  1. A reckless impetuous irresponsible person

  2. A person who acts in a capricious, impulsive, or reckless manner.

  3. South Asia

    A very foolish or irresponsible person; a fool, an idiot.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Capricious, impulsive, or reckless; also, bizarre, crazy, zany; or foolish, idiotic.

Used this way, madcap is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Critical or judgemental
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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: capricious or impulsive or or reckless

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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.