lunacy

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: lu=na=cy

CIDE DICTIONARY

lunacy, n. [See Lunatic.].

•  Insanity or madness; properly, the kind of insanity which is broken by intervals of reason, -- formerly supposed to be influenced by the changes of the moon; any form of unsoundness of mind, except idiocy; mental derangement or alienation.  Brande. Burrill.  [1913 Webster]

  "Your kindred shuns your house
  As beaten hence by your strange lunacy."  [1913 Webster]
•  A morbid suspension of good sense or judgment, as through fanaticism.  Dr. H. More.

Syn. -- Derangement; craziness; mania. See Insanity.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

lunacy, n. (pl. -ies)
1 insanity (orig. of the intermittent kind attributed to changes of the moon); the state of being a lunatic.
2 Law such mental unsoundness as interferes with civil rights or transactions.
3 great folly or eccentricity; a foolish act.

THESAURUS

lunacy

aberration, abnormality, absurdity, alienation, asininity, battiness, brain damage, brainlessness, brainsickness, buffoonery, clouded mind, clownishness, crackpottedness, crankiness, craziness, daffiness, daftness, dementedness, dementia, derangement, desipience, disorientation, distraction, eccentricity, fatuity, fatuousness, folie, folly, foolery, foolhardiness, foolheadedness, foolishness, frivolity, frivolousness, furor, giddiness, goofiness, idiocy, illogic, illogicality, imbecility, inanity, ineptitude, insaneness, insanity, irrationality, loss of mind, loss of reason, madness, mania, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disease, mental disorder, mental disturbance, mental illness, mental instability, mental sickness, mind overthrown, mindlessness, mindsickness, niaiserie, nugacity, nuttiness, oddness, pixilation, possession, preposterousness, psychopathy, psychosis, queerness, rabidness, reasonlessness, ridiculousness, sappiness, screwiness, senselessness, shattered mind, sick mind, sickness, silliness, strangeness, stupidity, thoughtlessness, triflingness, triviality, unbalance, unbalanced mind, unsaneness, unsound mind, unsoundness, unsoundness of mind, wackiness, weirdness, witlessness, zaniness, zanyism

ROGET THESAURUS

lunacy

Insanity

N insanity, disordered reason, disordered intellect, diseased mind, unsound mind, abnormal mind, derangement, unsoundness, psychosis, neurosis, cognitive disorder, affective disorder, insanity, lunacy, madness, mania, rabies, furor, mental alienation, aberration, paranoia, schizophrenia, dementation, dementia, demency, phrenitis, phrensy, frenzy, raving, incoherence, wandering, delirium, calenture of the brain, delusion, hallucination, lycanthropy, brain storm, vertigo, dizziness, swimming, sunstroke, coup de soleil, siriasis, fanaticism, infatuation, craze, oddity, eccentricity, twist, monomania (caprice), kleptodipsomania, hypochondriasis, melancholia, depression, clinical depression, severe depression, hysteria, amentia, screw loose, tile loose, slate loose, bee in one's bonnet, rats in the upper story, dotage, insane, mad, lunatic, loony, crazy, crazed, aliene, non compos mentis, not right, cracked, touched, bereft of reason, all possessed, unhinged, unsettled in one's mind, insensate, reasonless, beside oneself, demented, daft, phrenzied, frenzied, frenetic, possessed, possessed with a devil, deranged, maddened, moonstruck, shatterpated, mad-brained, scatter brained, shatter brained, crackbrained, touched, tetched, off one's head, maniacal, delirious, lightheaded, incoherent, rambling, doting, wandering, frantic, raving, stark staring mad, stark raving mad, wild-eyed, berserk, delusional, hallucinatory, corybantic, dithyrambic, rabid, giddy, vertiginous, wild, haggard, mazed, flighty, distracted, distraught, depressed, agitated, hyped up, bewildered, mad as a March hare, mad as a hatter, of unsound mind, touched in one's head, wrong in one's head, not right in one's head, not in one's right mind, not right in one's wits, upper story, out of one's mind, out of one's wits, out of one's skull, far gone, out of one's senses, out of one's wits, not in one's right mind, fanatical, infatuated, odd, eccentric, hypped, hyppish, spaced out, imbecile, silly, like one possessed, the mind having lost its balance, the reason under a cloud, tet exaltee, tet montee, ira furor brevis est, omnes stultos insanire.