| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| insanity |
| |
| SYLLABICATION: | in·san·i·ty |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   n-s n -t |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. in·san·i·ties
1. Persistent mental disorder or derangement. No longer in scientific use. 2. Law a. Unsoundness of mind sufficient in the judgment of a civil court to render a person unfit to maintain a contractual or other legal relationship or to warrant commitment to a mental health facility. b. In most criminal jurisdictions, a degree of mental malfunctioning sufficient to relieve the accused of legal responsibility for the act committed. 3a. Extreme foolishness; folly. b. Something that is extremely foolish. | | SYNONYMS: | insanity, lunacy, madness, mania, dementia These nouns denote conditions of serious mental disability. Insanity is a grave, often prolonged condition that prevents a person from being held legally responsible for his or her actions: was judged not guilty for reasons of insanity. Lunacy often denotes derangement relieved intermittently by periods of clear-mindedness: yelled wildly in a moment of utter lunacy. Madness often stresses the violent aspect of mental illness: a story about obsession and madness. Mania refers principally to the excited, or manic, phase of bipolar disorder: prescribed drugs to control the patient's periods of mania. Dementia implies mental deterioration brought on by an organic brain disorder: underwent progressive stages of dementia.
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
