What does madmen mean?
Madmen is the regular plural of madman and normally denotes a group of men described as insane, mentally unstable, or behaving in an extravagantly reckless way. Its force comes less from a technical medical claim than from a vivid contrast between conventional behavior and wild, irrational conduct: people may act “like madmen” in a burst of speed, enthusiasm, or risk. The expression can therefore be rhetorical rather than diagnostic, but applying it directly to people with mental illness is now likely to sound insensitive, theatrical, archaic, or insulting. Older English also used madmen as a collective label for male psychiatric patients, especially in accounts of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century asylums. The word belongs mainly to formal and literary English, though established compounds and idioms occur in ordinary speech. Madmen is most useful when a writer wants to convey conspicuous disorder, fanaticism, or disregard for limits rather than make a careful clinical statement.
noun, pluralMadmen is the standard plural of madman, referring to men regarded as mentally unstable or behaving wildly and irrationally. Historically, it was also used as a dated collective term for male psychiatric patients.
- Men regarded as insane, mentally unstable, or behaving wildly and irrationally.
- Dated: male inhabitants of a mental asylum or psychiatric hospital.
"They set out like madmen, racing down the cliff path before dawn."
"The two madmen raced through the station as if they were being chased."
"The novel depicts the madmen confined behind the asylum's barred windows."
Madmen is the standard plural of madman and is used whenever more than one is intended, although a determiner is needed in a definite reference.
"The madmen in the painting seem to be shouting a single furious chorus."
The phrase “madmen of science” once presented scientific daring as respectable eccentricity rather than simple disorder.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does madmen come from?
Madman is an English compound formed from mad and man. Mad continues Old English gemǣdd, originally meaning “out of one's mind” or “beside oneself,” and belongs to a Germanic family of words associated with insanity. The compound came to denote an insane or wildly irrational man, with madmen becoming its standard plural form.
Related word forms
How madmen is actually used
The word is now usually figurative or theatrical. Applying it directly to people with mental illness can sound archaic, insulting, or insensitive.
Easily confused with madmen
Madmen is one word and is the plural of madman, while mad men is the adjective mad followed by the plural noun men.