1
as in insanity
a foolish act or idea
you want to sneak into the building after the alarm is set—what lunacy!
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2
as in dementia
a serious mental disorder that prevents one from living a safe and normal life
the judge ruled that the lunacy of the accused made him incompetent to stand trial
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3
as in madness
lack of good sense or judgment
was it desperation or lunacy that caused him to quit his job and move to California without any plan for what to do when he got there?
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Recent Examples of lunacy
With all this lunacy, your show can also hit tender moments so well — like when Charles and Doreen make amends.
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Jim Halterman, Variety, 8 Oct. 2024
In a market crowded with hundreds of thousands of coins—including those belonging to Azalea and her celebrity peers—meme-coin creators are being driven to stunts of an ever-escalating lunacy to try to get people to choose their coin instead.
—Joel Khalili, WIRED, 12 Sep. 2024
The lunacy of that move and its aftershocks brought Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX , to a 52-week high of 65.73 intraday, another insane collaterally thoughtless metric that alternately scared some and made others feel the whole thing is overdone.
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 11 Aug. 2024
The situations the protagonists face are specific to Iran, but their escalating lunacy is universal.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for lunacy 
Jim Halterman, Variety, 8 Oct. 2024
In a market crowded with hundreds of thousands of coins—including those belonging to Azalea and her celebrity peers—meme-coin creators are being driven to stunts of an ever-escalating lunacy to try to get people to choose their coin instead.
—Joel Khalili, WIRED, 12 Sep. 2024
The lunacy of that move and its aftershocks brought Wall Street’s fear gauge, the VIX , to a 52-week high of 65.73 intraday, another insane collaterally thoughtless metric that alternately scared some and made others feel the whole thing is overdone.
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 11 Aug. 2024
The situations the protagonists face are specific to Iran, but their escalating lunacy is universal.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for lunacy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for lunacy
Noun
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Gein was found guilty of first-degree murder; in a separate trial to determine his mental competence, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.Declan Gallagher and Chris Bellamy, EW.com, 31 Oct. 2024
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Postpartum mental illnesses can be insidious and take many different forms, but the prosecution’s depiction of Lindsay challenged the stereotypical assumptions about insanity that had seemingly informed the public’s initial sympathy.Eren Orbey, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2024
Noun
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Her grandmother has dementia and has to take 13 different medications.Madison Lammert, Journal Sentinel, 6 Nov. 2024
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Her mother, already difficult, is struggling with dementia, hence the road trip, which is meant to resettle her into Robin’s home.Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 Oct. 2024
Noun
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But Melina always fascinated Lila — the authenticity of madness, untethered from the social mores that dominated their environment, made sense for Lila.Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2024
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Schedule madness Schools will play 18 conference games.Beth Harris, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2024
Noun
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This yearslong wave of mass hysteria came to be known as the satanic panic.Judy Berman, TIME, 30 Oct. 2024
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Prior to its premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Bong Joon-ho predicted audiences wouldn’t understand explicit cultural elements in Parasite, a black comedy leaning heavily into class hysteria.Nicholas Bell, SPIN, 28 Oct. 2024
Noun
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On the floor above a woman sweeps the floor, an act of absurdity that doubles as bravery, the whole scene a desperate attempt at normalcy in a world that has become anything but.Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 5 Nov. 2024
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Accentuating the absurdity of the gold rush, one of the screenwriters of Mezrich’s project, Lauren Schuker Blum, was competing with her husband, the producer Jason Blum, who was racing to get HBO’s project developed.Simon van Zuylen-Wood, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Raines believes that simplicity also applies to his politics.Terry Collins, USA TODAY, 4 Nov. 2024
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The production’s simplicity ditched the cliches that have accumulated around the play over decades.Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near lunacy
Cite this Entry
“Lunacy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/lunacy. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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