sane
adjective
Simple meaning
Mentally healthy; free from mental disorder.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
saynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈseɪn
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
Mentally healthy; free from mental disorder
Mentally sound; possessing a rational mind; having the mental faculties in such condition as to be able to anticipate and judge the effect of one's actions in an ordinary manner.
Being in a healthy condition; not deranged; thinking rationally.
Rational; reasonable; sensible.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Mentally healthy; free from mental disorder
Used this way, sane is a specialist word with a mildly favourable edge. This is a clinical use: it belongs to medical description, where it is factual rather than emotive.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly positive
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Positive and appreciative
- 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.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use sane
- “Appears to be completely sane.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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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.