psychosis
psych·o·sis/saɪˈkoʊsɪs/noun
psychosis is a noun meaning “A severe mental disorder, sometimes with physical damage to the brain, marked by a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-S-Y-C-H-O-S-I-S and has 3 syllables (psych·o·sis), and it appears 1.7 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of psychosis is psychoses.
What does psychosis mean?
noun
- 1
A severe mental disorder, sometimes with physical damage to the brain, marked by a deranged personality and a distorted view of reality.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce psychosis?
- UK /saɪˈkəʊsɪs/
- US /saɪˈkoʊsɪs/
Psychosis has 3 syllables, split psych·o·sis in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-psychosis.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of psychosis
- psychoses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is psychosis?
Psychosis appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Psychosis in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense mental disorder:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does psychosis come from?
From psych- + -osis. Not descended from Ancient Greek ψύχωσις (psúkhōsis, “animation, principle of life”), which is a piecewise cognate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).