Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution with or without grandeur, often strenuously defended with apparent logic and reason.
  • noun Extreme, irrational distrust of others.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A chronic form of insanity characterized by very gradual impairment of the intellect, systematized delusion, and usually by delusions of persecution or mandatory delusions producing homicidal tendency. In its mild form paranoia may consist in the well-marked crotchetiness exhibited in persons commonly called “cranks.” Paranoiacs usually show evidences of bodily and nervous degeneration, and many have hallucinations, esp. of sight and hearing.
  • noun colloq. Unwarranted suspicion of the motives of others; -- used colloquially in a non-technical sense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution.
  • noun Extreme, irrational distrust of others.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a psychological disorder characterized by delusions of persecution or grandeur

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek, madness, from paranoos, demented : para-, beyond; see para– + nous, noos, mind.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek παράνοια (paranoia, "madness"), from παράνοος (paranoos, "demented"), from παρά (para, "beyond, beside") + νόος (noos, "mind, spirit").

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