madness

/ˈmædnəs/

/ˈmædnɪs/

Other forms: madnesses

Madness is foolish, impulsive behavior. It would be madness to ride on the back of your friend's car, standing on the bumper.

A screaming crowd waiting to see their favorite rock star creates an atmosphere of madness — and their enthusiasm itself can be described as madness. You could also say that donating all your money to an animal shelter would be madness, or describe the madness of a busy Thanksgiving Day sale. Madness sometimes takes on its original meaning, "mental instability" or "insanity."

Definitions of madness

1. noun

   the quality of being rash and foolish
   synonyms: craziness, folly, foolishness

   type of:

   stupidity

   a poor ability to understand or to profit from experience
2. noun

   unrestrained excitement or enthusiasm
   “poetry is a sort of divine madness”

   synonyms: rabidity, rabidness

   type of:

   ebullience, enthusiasm, exuberance

   eager enjoyment or approval
3. noun

   obsolete terms for legal insanity
   synonyms: insaneness, lunacy

   type of:

   insanity

   relatively permanent disorder of the mind
4. noun

   a feeling of intense anger
   synonyms: fury, rage

   types:

   wrath

   intense anger (usually on an epic scale)

   lividity

   a state of fury so great the face becomes discolored

   type of:

   anger, bile, choler, ire

   anger; irritability
5. noun

   an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain
   synonyms: hydrophobia, lyssa, rabies

   type of:

   zoonosis, zoonotic disease

   an animal disease that can be transmitted to humans