delirium

/dəˈlɪriəm/

/dɪˈliriəm/

Other forms: deliriums

Experiencing delirium? Then you're out of your mind and so excited you're hallucinating. Many things can cause delirium, including illness, high stress, and your team winning the World Series after 100 years of trying.

Delirium means “madness” in Latin, and for good reason. Patients with high fevers or who suffer severe trauma might experience a state of delirium, full of mental confusion and maybe a little hysteria. And if you’ve ever stayed up all night writing a paper or working hard to meet some deadline, you’ve probably experienced moments of delirium, where you feel crazed and hallucinatory, fueled by sleep deprivation and too much coffee.

Definitions of delirium

1. noun

   a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion often accompanied by hallucinations
   type of:

   disturbance, folie, mental disorder, mental disturbance, psychological disorder

   (psychiatry) a psychological disorder of thought or emotion; a more neutral term than mental illness
2. noun

   state of violent mental agitation
   synonyms: craze, frenzy, fury, hysteria

   types:

   nympholepsy

   a frenzy of emotion; as for something unattainable

   epidemic hysertia, mass hysteria

   a condition in which a large group of people exhibit the same state of violent mental agitation

   type of:

   mania, manic disorder

   a mood disorder; an affective disorder in which the victim tends to respond excessively and sometimes violently