Definitions

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

  • noun An acute or chronic mental state marked by loss of contact with reality, disorganized speech and behavior, and often by hallucinations or delusions, seen in certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, and other medical disorders.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Mental constitution or condition.
  • noun A change in the field of consciousness.
  • noun In pathology, any mental disorder; any form of insanity.

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

  • noun Any vital action or activity.
  • noun (Med.) A disease of the mind; especially, a functional mental disorder, that is, one unattended with evident organic changes.

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

  • noun psychology A severe mental disorder, sometimes with physical damage to the brain, marked by a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality.

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

  • noun any severe mental disorder in which contact with reality is lost or highly distorted

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From psych- + -osis or from Ancient Greek ψύχωσις (psykhosis, "animation, principle of life").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Look out for my sibling, she's nuts.

    June 26, 2009