sanity

English

Etymology

From Middle English sanite, sanyte, sanytee, from Middle French sanité, from Latin sānitās, from sānus (“healthy”) + -itās (“-ity”). By surface analysis, sane +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsæ.nə.ti/, /ˈsæ.nɪ.ti/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsæn.əˌti/, /ˈsæn.ɪˌti/

• Audio (US):

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Noun

sanity (countable and uncountable, plural sanities)

1. The condition of being sane.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sanity

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:insanity

   Coordinate term: unsanity

   preserve one's sanity

   lose your sanity

   decree someone's sanity

   • 2026 April 8, Robert Tait, “Trump may be using Nixon’s ‘madman theory’ – and similar infamy may await”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 8 April 2026:

     The template is [Richard] Nixon’s “madman theory” of diplomatic engagement – shorthand for prompting your adversaries to doubt your sanity and mental instability to the point where they are intimidated into otherwise unlikely concessions.

2. Reasonable and rational behaviour.

Derived terms

• insanity
• lose sanity
• nonsanity
• sanitary
• sanitize
• sanity check
• sanity test

Translations

the condition of being sane

• Bulgarian: здрав разум m (zdrav razum)
• Czech: příčetnost (cs) f
• Danish: fornuft c, forstand c
• Esperanto: prudento
• French: santé mentale (fr) f
• Galician: sensatez f, xuízo (gl), siso (gl), cordura f
• German: Verstand (de) m, (law) Zurechnungsfähigkeit (de) f
• Greek: λογική (el) f (logikí)
• Hungarian: ép elme, épelméjűség, józan ész (hu)
• Indonesian: kewarasan (id)
• Italian: sanità (it)
• Plautdietsch: Denkjvemieejen n
• Polish: poczytalność (pl) f
• Portuguese: sanidade (pt)
• Russian: вменя́емость (ru) f (vmenjájemostʹ)
• Spanish: cordura (es) f
• Swedish: förnuft (sv) n, förstånd (sv) n

reasonable and rational behaviour

• Bulgarian: благоразумие (bg) n (blagorazumie), уравновесеност (bg) f (uravnovesenost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 理智 (zh) (lǐzhì)

• Czech: racionálnost f, rozumnost f
• Esperanto: prudento
• Galician: sensatez f, sentidiño
• German: Vernunft (de) f, Vernünftigkeit f
• Japanese: 正気 (ja) (しょうき, shōki)
• Russian: здравомы́слие (ru) n (zdravomýslije), благоразу́мие (ru) (blagorazúmije)
• Spanish: sensatez (es) f
• Swedish: förnuft (sv) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} kewarasan (id)
• Norwegian: ^{(please verify)} tilregnelighet, ^{(please verify)} fornuft (no) m
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} sănătate (ro) f, ^{(please verify)} echilibru mintal n, ^{(please verify)} echilibru psihic n
• Telugu: ^{(please verify)} వివేకము (te) (vivēkamu)
• Turkish: ^{(please verify)} akıl sağlığı, ^{(please verify)} aklıselimlik (tr), ^{(please verify)} makullük, ^{(please verify)} muhakeme (tr), ^{(please verify)} ruh sağlığı (tr)

Anagrams

• Yantis, sainty, satiny, stainy, stay in