take leave of one's senses

verb

"take-leave-of-one-s-senses" is a 21-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“take leave of one's senses” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
26
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To go crazy; to stop behaving rationally.

Corpus desk

Index EN-take-leave-of-one-s-sens · take leave of one's senses · English

take leave of one's senses · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 26 letters
  • VOW-10 10 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for take leave of one's senses
PropertyValue
Headwordtake leave of one's senses
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters26
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “take leave of one's senses” in English

take leave of one's sensesranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

take leave of one's senses is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To go crazy; to stop behaving rationally.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for take leave of one's senses, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is take leave of one's senses, spelled T-A-K-E- -L-E-A-V-E- -O-F- -O-N-E-'-S- -S-E-N-S-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    To go crazy; to stop behaving rationally.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how take leave of one's senses appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Here I am, with my book and my pencil—the latter not pointed so well as I could wish, but when Christians take leave of their senses, who is to expect that pencils will keep their points?
  2. She plainly said that men seemed to take leave of their senses as soon as women were concerned; […]

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "take leave of one's senses"?
"take leave of one's senses" is spelled T-A-K-E- -L-E-A-V-E- -O-F- -O-N-E-'-S- -S-E-N-S-E-S.
What does "take leave of one's senses" mean?
As a verb, "take leave of one's senses" means: To go crazy; to stop behaving rationally.
What language does "take leave of one's senses" come from?
"take leave of one's senses" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list