Insane Meaning
/ɪnˈseɪn/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjExhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad.
adjUsed by or relating to insane people.
Sentence Examples
Hamlet acts as if he were insane.
Are you insane for you to stay up all night playing cards?
She was released on the grounds that she was insane.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The judge declared the defendant ____ and unfit for trial.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Driving at that high speed on a narrow, wet road like this is completely ____ and very dangerous.
Word Origin & History
From Latin īnsānus (“unsound in mind; mad, insane”), from in- + sānus (“sound, sane”), equivalent to in- + sane.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"What is the cause of insanity? Nobody can answer such a sweeping question as that, but we know that certain diseases, such as syphilis, break down and destroy the brain cells and result in insanity. In fact, about one-half of all mental diseases can be attributed to such physical causes as brain lesions, alcohol, toxins, and injuries. But the other half—and this is the appalling part of the story—the other half of the people who go insane apparently have nothing organically wrong with their brain cells. In post-mortem examinations, when their brain tissues are studied under the highest-powered microscopes, they are found to be apparently just as healthy as yours and mine. Why do these people go insane?"
— 1933, Dale Carnegie, “Part 1, Chapter 2. THE BIG SECRET OF DEALING WITH PEOPLE”, in How to Win Friends and Influence People, page 41:
"And you told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I'm insane"
— 1980 March 7, Billy Joel, “You May Be Right”, in Glass Houses:
"Were such things here, as we doe speake about? / Or haue we eaten on the insane Root, / That takes the Reason Prisoner?"
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
"The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"Yenshui is a fairly ordinary town situated between Tainan and Chiayi. However, during the Lantern Festival, on the 15th day of the first moon, the whole town goes insane."
— 1998, Robert Storey, “South-West Taiwan”, in Taiwan (Lonely Planet), 4th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 292, column 2:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The judge declared the defendant ____ and unfit for trial.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Driving at that high speed on a narrow, wet road like this is completely ____ and very dangerous.