loony

adjective

loo·​ny ˈlü-nē 

variants or less commonly looney

loonier; looniest

: foolish, eccentric

looniness noun

loony noun

plural loonies

Synonyms

• absurd
• asinine
• balmy
• brainless
• bubbleheaded
• cockeyed
• crackpot
• crazy
• cuckoo
• daffy
• daft
• dippy
• dotty
• fatuous
• featherheaded
• fool
• foolish
• half-baked
• half-witted
• harebrained
• inept
• insane
• jerky
• kooky
• kookie
• lunatic
• lunkheaded
• mad
• nonsensical
• nutty
• preposterous
• sappy
• screwball
• senseless
• silly
• simpleminded
• stupid
• tomfool
• unwise
• wacky
• whacky
• weak-minded
• witless
• zany

Examples of loony in a Sentence

Every family includes someone who's a little loony.

that's got to be the looniest idea I've ever heard

Recent Examples on the Web

Advertisement Here are six movies that advanced the genre in 2024: (Uncredited / Associated Press) ‘Longlegs’ Osgood Perkins wrote and directed this waking nightmare about Maika Monroe’s psychic FBI agent on the trail of ... if not quite a serial killer, the looniest murder influencer ever. —Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024

Harrelson has a small but impressively loony role as a crazed hermit who claims to anyone who will listen that the end of days is here. —Tim Grierson, Vulture, 14 July 2024

One of our region's most famous comics, Michael Hawthorne, built a career from illustrating the loony loudmouth. —Isaac Avilucea, Axios, 18 Oct. 2024

Holland treats the idea of a loony murderer’s spirit occupying a doll’s form with an uncommon seriousness. —Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 15 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

by shortening & alteration from lunatic

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing loony

• loony bin
• loony tunes

Kids Definition

loony

adjective

loo·​ny

variants also looney

ˈlü-nē 

loonier; looniest

: very foolish or eccentric

looniness noun

loony noun

Etymology

an altered form of lunatic (adjective)