Mad — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

adjective verb noun adverb abbreviation /ˈmad/

Meaning & Definition of Mad

Mad (adjective)

  1. arising from, indicative of, or marked by mental disorder —not used technically
  2. completely unrestrained by reason and judgment, unable to think in a clear or sensible way
  3. incapable of being explained or accounted for

Mad (verb)

  1. madden

Mad (noun)

  1. a fit or mood of bad temper
  2. anger, fury

Mad (adverb)

  1. very, extremely

Mad (abbreviation)

  1. mutual assured destruction; mutually assured destruction

Mad (adjective) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

  1. feeling or showing anger

    "the constant harassment from telemarketers finally made her good and mad"

    similar: angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off (chiefly British), choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed, infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, shirty (chiefly British), sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, wroth, bent out of shape, blue in the face, fit to be tied, going crook (Australian & New Zealand), hopping mad, hot under the collar, in a fume, in a huff, in a pet
    related: ranting, raving, stormy, boiling, bristling, bristly, burning, cross, huffy, passionate, seething, sizzling, smoldering, worked up, wrought (up), acrid, acrimonious, antagonistic, antipathetic, bitter, embittered, inimical, malevolent, piqued, rancorous, resentful, spiteful, vengeful, vindictive, virulent, vitriolic, antisocial, cold, cool, disagreeable, disapproving, distant, frigid, icy, ill-tempered, sorehead, sulky, unfriendly, unpleasant, aggravated, annoyed, bearish, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabby, cranky, dyspeptic, exasperated, fretful, fussy, grouchy, grumpy, ill-humored, inflammable, irascible, irritable, peevish, perturbed, petulant, put out, quick-tempered, snappish, testy, touchy, argumentative, belligerent, contentious, contrary, disputatious, ornery, pugnacious, quarrelsome, querulous
    opposite: angerless, delighted, pleased
    near: accepting, accommodating, obliging, agreeable, amenable, complaisant, amicable, cordial, friendly, content, happy, satisfied, empathetic, sympathetic, tolerant, understanding, calm, pacific, peaceable, placid, serene, tranquil, unembittered, affable, amiable, easygoing, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, kind, pleasant, sweet

  2. unable to think in a clear or sensible way

    "the man who thinks he's been turned into a bug is clearly mad"

    similar: bats, batty, bonkers (informal + sometimes offensive), brainsick, certifiable (dated, informal + disparaging), cracked (informal + disparaging), crackers (informal + disparaging), crazed (sometimes offensive), crazy (usually offensive), daft (chiefly British, informal), demented, deranged (often offensive), haywire, insane, loco (slang), maniacal, mental (sometimes offensive), non compos mentis, nuts (informal + sometimes offensive), nutty (sometimes offensive), psycho (informal + disparaging), psychotic (sometimes offensive), unbalanced, unhinged, unsound, wud (chiefly Scottish), around the bend, off one's gourd, off one's head, off one's rocker, out of one's head, out to lunch (slang)
    related: dotty, fey, loopy, off, potty (chiefly British), teched, touched, aberrant, delirious, delusional, delusionary, disordered, disturbed, eccentric, odd, oddball, pixilated, queer, strange, foolish, senseless, witless, irrational, unreasonable, amok, ape, ballistic, bananas, berserk, nuclear, depressed, distracted, distraught, frantic, frenzied, hysterical, raving, wigged-out, fixated, monomaniac, monomaniacal, obsessed
    opposite: balanced, compos mentis, sane, sound, uncrazy
    near: clear, lucid, rational, reasonable, judicious, sensible, wise, healthy, normal, well-adjusted, unneurotic

  3. marked by great and often stressful excitement or activity

    "a mad rush to finish the shopping before Christmas"

    similar: delirious, ferocious, feverish, fierce, frantic, frenetic, frenzied, furious, rabid, violent, wild
    related: concentrated, high-pressured, intense, intensive, vehement, excessive, exorbitant, extravagant, extreme, immoderate, inordinate, lavish, overmuch, overweening, unconscionable, undue, crazed (sometimes offensive), crazy (usually offensive), demented, deranged (often offensive), insane, irrational, maniacal
    opposite: relaxed
    near: calm, peaceful, placid, quiet, serene, subdued, tranquil, undisturbed, unperturbed, untroubled, moderate, reasonable, temperate, casual, easygoing, low-pressure, balanced, sane, sound

  4. showing or marked by a lack of good sense or judgment

    "her mad decision to quit a good job and run off to the big city with a man she barely knew"

    similar: absurd, asinine, balmy, barmy (chiefly British), batty, brainless, bubbleheaded, cockeyed, crackbrained, crackpot, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dippy, dotty, fatuous, featherheaded, fool, foolish, fruity (slang), gaga, half-baked, half-witted, harebrained, inept, insane, jerky, kooky, loony, loony tunes, lunatic (informal), lunkheaded, meshuga, nonsensical, nutty, preposterous, sappy, screwball, senseless, silly, simpleminded, stupid, tomfool, unwise, wacko, wacky, weak-minded, witless, zany, out to lunch
    related: airheaded, birdbrained, boobish, brain-dead, chowderheaded, chuckleheaded, clueless, dense, dim, dim-witted, doltish, dopey, dorky (slang), dull, dumb, dunderheaded, empty-headed, feebleminded, gormless (chiefly British), idiotic, imbecile, knuckleheaded, lamebrain, mindless, moronic, oafish, obtuse, opaque, pinheaded, simple, slow, slow-witted, soft, softheaded, thoughtless, thick, thickheaded, unintelligent, vacuous, fallacious, illogical, invalid, irrational, nonrational, surd, unreasonable, unreasoning, unsound, weak, farcical, laughable, ludicrous, ridiculous, notional, buffoonish, clownish, ill-advised, unconsidered, unreasoned
    opposite: judicious, prudent, sagacious, sage, sane, sapient, sensible, sound, wise
    near: brainy, bright, clever, intelligent, smart, logical, rational, reasonable, valid, well-advised

Mad (noun) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

  1. an intense emotional state of displeasure with someone or something

    "watch out, the boss has got a bit of a mad on just now"

    similar: anger, angriness, birse (chiefly Scottish), choler, furor, fury, indignation, irateness, ire, lividity, lividness, madness, mood (archaic), outrage, rage, spleen, wrath, wrathfulness, slow burn
    related: aggravation, annoyance, exasperation, irritation, vexation, acrimoniousness, acrimony, animosity, antagonism, antipathy, bile, biliousness, bitterness, contempt, embitterment, empoisonment, enmity, grudge, hostility, rancor, envy, jaundice, jealousy, pique, resentment, malevolence, malice, spite, vengefulness, venom, vindictiveness, virulence, vitriol, belligerence, contentiousness, contrariness, crankiness, disputatiousness, hot-headedness, irascibility, irascibleness, irritability, orneriness, pugnaciousness, pugnacity, quarrelsomeness, querulousness, blowup, flare, flare-up, outburst, chafe, dander, dudgeon, huff, pet, rise, ruffle, temper, air rage, road rage, delirium, heat, passion, warmth
    opposite: delight, pleasure
    near: calmness, forbearance, patience

Mad (verb) — Senses, Synonyms & Antonyms

  1. to make angry

    "her endless excuses for not doing the work madded her overburdened coworkers"

    similar: anger, enrage, incense, inflame, infuriate, ire, madden, outrage, rankle, rile, roil, steam up, tick off, get one's goat, rub the wrong way
    related: affront, aggravate, annoy, burn (up), cross, exasperate, get, huff, irritate, miff, nettle, offend, peeve, pique, provoke, put out, ruffle, vex, antagonize, embitter, envenom
    opposite: delight, gratify, please
    near: allay, assuage, relieve, comfort, console, soothe, appease, conciliate, mollify, pacify, placate, calm, lull, quiet, settle, beguile, bewitch, captivate, charm, disarm, enchant

Related Entry: Mad (about) (adjective)

Mad (about) is a different word from Mad. The synonyms below are for mad (about), not for mad.

  1. filled with an intense or excessive love for

    "he's virtually inseparable from his new girlfriend and seems to be just mad about her"

    similar: besotted (by), crazy (about or over), dotty (over), enamored (of), enraptured (by), gaga (over), gone (on), infatuated (with), nuts (about), stuck on, sweet on
    related: hung up (on), obsessed, foolish, silly, wild, bewitched, captivated, charmed, enchanted, entranced, fascinated
    near: cool, detached, unenchanted, unimpressed, disenchanted, disillusioned, heart-free

Related Entry: Mad money (noun)

Mad money is a different word from Mad. The synonyms below are for mad money, not for mad.

  1. as in pocket money, spending money

    similar: petty cash, pin money, pocket money, spending money, resources, wherewithal, abundance, means, opulence, riches, treasure, wealth, big bucks, bomb (British), boodle, bundle, earth, fortune, king's ransom, megabucks, mint, packet (chiefly British), pile, pot, chump change, dibs (slang), dime, mite, peanuts, pittance, shoestring, bankroll, capital, finances, funds, roll (slang), wad, wallet, bill, dollar, greenback, banknote, cashier's check, check, draft, money order, note, promissory note, dead presidents (slang), folding money, paper money, scrip

Related Entry: Horn-mad (adjective)

Horn-mad is a different word from Mad. The synonyms below are for horn-mad, not for mad.

  1. feeling or showing anger

    "the residents were horn-mad when they found out their housing community had been built on a waste dump site"

    similar: angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off (chiefly British), choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed, infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, shirty (chiefly British), sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, wroth, bent out of shape, blue in the face, fit to be tied, going crook (Australian & New Zealand), hopping mad, hot under the collar, in a fume, in a huff, in a pet
    related: ranting, raving, stormy, boiling, bristling, bristly, burning, cross, huffy, passionate, seething, sizzling, smoldering, worked up, wrought (up), acrid, acrimonious, antagonistic, antipathetic, bitter, embittered, inimical, malevolent, piqued, rancorous, resentful, spiteful, vengeful, vindictive, virulent, vitriolic, antisocial, cold, cool, disagreeable, disapproving, distant, frigid, icy, ill-tempered, sorehead, sulky, unfriendly, unpleasant, aggravated, annoyed, bearish, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabby, cranky, dyspeptic, exasperated, fretful, fussy, grouchy, grumpy, ill-humored, inflammable, irascible, irritable, peevish, perturbed, petulant, put out, quick-tempered, snappish, testy, touchy, argumentative, belligerent, contentious, contrary, disputatious, ornery, pugnacious, quarrelsome, querulous
    opposite: angerless, delighted, pleased
    near: accepting, accommodating, obliging, agreeable, amenable, complaisant, amicable, cordial, friendly, content, happy, satisfied, empathetic, sympathetic, tolerant, understanding, calm, pacific, peaceable, placid, serene, tranquil, unembittered, affable, amiable, easygoing, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, kind, pleasant, sweet

Related Entry: Hopping mad (phrase)

Hopping mad is a different word from Mad. The synonyms below are for hopping mad, not for mad.

  1. feeling or showing anger

    "Abbie was hopping mad to hear that classmates had been spreading rumors about her."

    similar: angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off (chiefly British), choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed, infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, mad, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, shirty (chiefly British), sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, wroth, bent out of shape, blue in the face, fit to be tied, going crook (Australia & New Zealand), hot under the collar, in a fume, in a huff, in a pet
    related: ranting, raving, stormy, boiling, bristling, bristly, burning, cross, huffy, passionate, seething, sizzling, smoldering, worked up, wrought (up), acrid, acrimonious, antagonistic, antipathetic, bitter, embittered, inimical, malevolent, piqued, rancorous, resentful, spiteful, vengeful, vindictive, virulent, vitriolic, antisocial, cold, cool, disagreeable, disapproving, distant, frigid, icy, ill-tempered, sorehead, sulky, unfriendly, unpleasant, aggravated, annoyed, bearish, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabby, cranky, dyspeptic, exasperated, fretful, fussy, grouchy, grumpy, ill-humored, inflammable, irascible, irritable, peevish, perturbed, petulant, put out, quick-tempered, snappish, testy, touchy, argumentative, belligerent, contentious, contrary, disputatious, ornery, pugnacious, quarrelsome, querulous
    opposite: angerless, delighted, pleased
    near: accepting, accommodating, obliging, agreeable, amenable, complaisant, amicable, cordial, friendly, content, happy, satisfied, empathetic, sympathetic, tolerant, understanding, calm, pacific, peaceable, placid, serene, tranquil, unembittered, affable, amiable, easygoing, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, kind, pleasant, sweet

Synonyms, Thesaurus & Another Word for Mad

The most common words with a similar meaning to Mad:

Sometimes offensive: crazed, mental, nutty, psychotic
Chiefly British: cheesed off, shirty, barmy
Informal + disparaging: cracked, crackers, psycho
Slang: loco, out to lunch, fruity
Informal + sometimes offensive: bonkers, nuts
Chiefly Scottish: wud, birse
angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming, furious, hopping, horn-mad, hot, incensed, indignant, inflamed, infuriate, infuriated, irate, ireful, livid, outraged, rabid, rankled, riled, riley, roiled, sore, steamed up, steaming, teed off, ticked, wrathful, wroth, bats, batty, brainsick, demented, haywire, insane, maniacal

Antonyms & Opposite Words for Mad

Words with the opposite meaning of Mad:

angerless, delighted, pleased, balanced, compos mentis, sane, sound, uncrazy, relaxed, judicious, prudent, sagacious, sage, sapient, sensible, wise, delight, pleasure, gratify, please

Related Words for Mad

ranting, raving, stormy, boiling, bristling, bristly, burning, cross, huffy, passionate, seething, sizzling, smoldering, worked up, wrought (up), acrid, acrimonious, antagonistic, antipathetic, bitter, embittered, inimical, malevolent, piqued, rancorous, resentful, spiteful, vengeful, vindictive, virulent

Near Antonyms of Mad

accepting, accommodating, obliging, agreeable, amenable, complaisant, amicable, cordial, friendly, content, happy, satisfied, empathetic, sympathetic, tolerant, understanding, calm, pacific, peaceable, placid, serene, tranquil, unembittered, affable, amiable, easygoing, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, kind

Word Forms of Mad

Inflections: madder, maddest, madded, madding

Derived words: maddish (adjective)

Origin & Etymology of Mad

Middle English medd, madd, from Old English gemǣd, past participle of *gemǣdan to madden, from gemād silly, mad; akin to Old High German gimeit foolish, crazy

First known use: 13th century

Vocabulary Lists & Topics for Mad

Words & Phrases Containing Mad

mad as a hatter, mad-brained, mad cow disease, mad money, mad dash

Frequently Asked Questions about Mad

What does "Mad" mean?

"Mad" means arising from, indicative of, or marked by mental disorder —not used technically. As an an adjective, a verb, a noun, an adverb and an abbreviation, it is defined as: arising from, indicative of, or marked by mental disorder —not used technically. It has 6 distinct senses.

What is another word for "Mad"?

Other words for "Mad" include angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off, choleric, enraged and foaming. The best synonym depends on which meaning of "Mad" you intend.

What are different ways to say "Mad"?

There are 425 words and phrases with a similar meaning to "Mad". Common alternatives include angered, angry, apoplectic, ballistic, cheesed off, choleric, enraged, foaming, fuming and furious.

What is an informal or casual word for "Mad"?

Casual or informal alternatives for "Mad" include bonkers, nuts, certifiable, cracked, crackers and psycho.

What is a slang word for "Mad"?

Slang words for "Mad" include loco, out to lunch and fruity.

What is the opposite of "Mad"?

Antonyms of "Mad" include angerless, delighted, pleased, balanced, compos mentis, sane, sound and uncrazy. Near antonyms include accepting, accommodating, obliging and agreeable.

How do you use "Mad" in a sentence?

Examples of "Mad" in a sentence: "the constant harassment from telemarketers finally made her good and mad"; "the man who thinks he's been turned into a bug is clearly mad"; "a mad rush to finish the shopping before Christmas".

Is "Mad" a noun, verb, or adjective?

"Mad" can be used as an adjective, a verb, a noun, an adverb and an abbreviation, depending on the context.