Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Madcap |
MadcapAdjective1. Characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation; "a hotheaded decision"; "liable to such impulsive acts as hugging strangers"; "an impetuous display of spending and gambling"; "madcap escapades"; (`brainish' is archaic). Noun1. A reckless impetuous irresponsible person. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "madcap" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1594. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | MADCAP Math and set problems, for the Maniac II and CDC 6600. "MADCAP - A Scientific Compiler for a Displayed Formula Texbook Language", M.B. Wells, CACM 4(1):31-36 (Jan 1961). Sammet 1969, pp.271-281. Versions: Madcap 5 (1964), Madcap 6. "The Unified Data Structure Capability in Madcap 6", M.B. Wells et al, Intl J Comp Info Sci 1(3) (sep 1972). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: MadcapSynonyms: brainish (adj), hotheaded (adj), impetuous (adj), impulsive (adj), tearaway(a) (adj), daredevil (n), harum-scarum (n), hothead (n), lunatic (n), swashbuckler (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Excitability | Vehement, demonstrative, violent, wild, furious, fierce, fiery, hot-headed, madcap. |
Humorist | Zany, madcap; pickle-herring, witling, caricaturist, grimacier; persifleur. |
Madman | Noun: madman, lunatic, maniac, bedlamite, candidate for Bedlam, raver, madcap, crazy; energumen; automaniac, monomaniac, dipsomaniac, kleptomaniac; hypochondriac; (low spirits); crank, Tom o'Bedlam. |
Rashness | Desperado, rashling, madcap, daredevil, Hotspur, fire eater, bully, bravo, Hector, scapegrace, enfant perdu; Don Quixote, knight-errant, Icarus; adventurer; gambler, gamester; dynamitard; boomer. |
Adjective: rash, incautious, indiscreet; imprudent, improvident, temerarious; uncalculating; heedless; careless; (neglectful); without ballast, heels over head, head over heels; giddy; (inattentive); wanton, reckless, wild, madcap; desperate, devil-may-care. | |
Violence | Berserk, berserker; fury, dragon, demon, tiger, beldame, Tisiphone, Megaera, Alecto, madcap, wild beast; fire eater; (blusterer). |
Wit | Zany, madcap. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Madcap Magoo (1955) The Madcap (1916) Madcap Ambrose (1916) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | ![]() | Blackcap, madcap! : never tired of play. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
| Clown; clowny; funny; horn; honk; honking; joker; antic; buffoon; comedian; comic; cut-up; dolt; droll; farceur; fool; funnyman; gagman; gagster; harlequin; humorist; jester; jokesmith; jokester; madcap; merry-Andrew; merrymaker; mime; mountebank; mummer. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Madcap" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "Madcap" is used about 39 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 66.67% | 26 | 68,323 |
| Noun (proper) | 28.21% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5.13% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 39 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
madcap | 80 |
lyrics madcap | 4 |
madcap laugh | 2 |
band madcap punk | 2 |
barrett laugh madcap syd | 2 |
madcap tab | 2 |
madcap vidcap | 2 |
chase dr dragos madcap | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "madcap"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shajtan, njeri i krisur (crackpot, desperado), i krisur (balmy, bonkers, cracked, crackers, cuckoo, Daffy, dare devil, daring, desperate, devil may care, flaky, hard on, loon, loony, nut, nuts, pixilated, potty, screwball, wacky). (various references) | |
Arabic | متهور (audacious, blind, blindfold, blindfolded, brash, careless, daredevil, daredevilry, desperate, devil may care, excessive, extravagant, foolhardy, harum scarum, hasty, headlong, heady, heedless, hot-headed, immaterial, impetuous, impish, imprudent, impulsive, inconsiderate, light-headed, precipitate, precipitous, rash, reckless, slapdash, temerarious, too hasty, unrestrained, unwary), مجنون (barmy, bedlam, bonkers, crazy, daft, demented, dotty, fool, insane, mad, maniac, maniacal, nut, off one's nut, out of one's head, out of one's mind, scatty, screwy, tomfool, up the pole), طائش (bad, careless, flighty, foolhardy, frivolous, giddy, harebrained, hasty, heedless, impetuous, imprudent, inadvertent, inconsiderate, indiscreet, injudicious, libertine, light, light minded, light-headed, lunatic, mad, muddle-headed, popinjay, random, rash, rattle-brained, reckless, scatter-brain, scatter-brained, scatty, stray, stunned, thoughtless, unadvised, unwise), جنوني (crazy, furious, insane, lunatic, manic, terrific), جامح (headstrong, inordinate, mad, raving, stubborn, unruly, wild, wilful), شخص طائش (blade). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | щурчо, щур (bonkers, lunatic), налудничав (mad, nutty, possessed, queer, whacked, wild), лудетина (road hog, romp, scorcher). (various references) | |
Czech | ztřeštìnec (scatter-brain). (various references) | |
Farsi | ادم بی پرواووحشی , دیوانه (Bedlam, Berserk, Crazy, Cuckoo, Demented, Fanatic, Fey, Gaga, Harebrained, Insane, Loco, Loony, Lunatic, Mad, Madbrained, Manic, Natural, Nut, Nutty, Psychotic). (various references) | |
Finnish | villikko, kaistapää (fool), hurjastelija, hurjapää (fanatic), hulluttelija (practical joker), hulivili (gay fellow), huimapää (darevil). (various references) | |
French | insensé (mad, madman), indifférent, fou (mad, madman, maniac, maniacal), effréné (mad), étourdi (mad), écervelé (mad). (various references) | |
German | toll (beautiful, brill, crazy, fancy, fantastic, furious, goody, great, groovy, insane, jazzy, mad, magic, magical, nuts, pippin, rabid, raving, stunning, wild, yummy). (various references) | |
Greek | τρελλάρασ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | "רפתק י (adventurous, audacious, picaresque). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vadóc (dragged up, Wilding), féktelen (boisterous, impetuous, lawless, licentious, obstreperous, rambunctious, rampageous, robustic, towering, turbulent, unbounded, unbridled, unrestrained, unruled, wanton). (various references) | |
Indonesian | brandalan, berandalan (hothead, lihat: berandal). (various references) | |
Italian | scervellato (harebrained). (various references) | |
Manx | ommidjagh (absurd, brainless, crackpot, fatuous, foolish, idiotic, imbecile, nonsensical, scatter-brained, silly). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | adcapmay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | excêntrico (barmy, bizarre, cam, capricious, cranky, crotcheteer, crotchety, eccentric, eccentrical, erratic, kinky, lunatic, odd, oddball, peculiar, potty, quaint, queer, quizzical, strange, suburban, tappet, wacky, weird, whimsical, wobbler), desmiolado (rattle-brained, rattle-headed, witless). (various references) | |
Romanian | zãpãcit (confounded, confused, dawdler, dim, distracted, dizzy, flighty, giddy, hare-brained, headless, light-headed, muddle-headed, mused, muzzy, off one's dot, perplexedly, rash, reckless, scatterbrain, scatterbrained, scatterbrains, silly, thoughtless, topsy turvy, woolly-headed, wronghead, wrongheaded), nebun (bad, bedlamite, bishop, brain sick, cracked, crazy, daft, delirious, demented, demoniac, distracted, distraught, extravagant, fool, foolish, frantic, frenzied, infatuated, insane, lunatic, mad, mad about, madman, maniac, maniacial, moon-struck, potty, raving, reckless, unruly, wild), descreierat (brainless, desperate, hare-brained, reckless). (various references) | |
Russian | сумасброд (crackpot, madman, screwball, screw-ball). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | vragolasta devojka, vragolasta. (various references) | |
Spanish | tarambana (harum scarum), locuelo, calavera; botarate; temerario, calavera (calaber, liver, rake, skull, skull and crossbones), atolondrado (careless, frivolous, harebrained, harum scarum, lightheaded, muddle-headed, reckless, scatterbrained, scatty). (various references) | |
Swedish | vildhjärna (scapegrace), vild (coltish, delirious, ding-dong, ferae naturae, feral, ferine, ferocious, fierce, frenetic, haggard, headlong, phrenetic, rampant, riotous, savage, truculant, truculent, untamed, wild, wildcat), våghals (daredevil), tokstolle (crackpot), tokig (barmy, Batty, bonkers, cock eyed, cockeyed, crack-brained, cracked, crackers, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, demented, Dotty, fruity, gaga, insane, loony, mad, moony, nuts, ridiculous, touched, wrong), galenpanna, galen (absurd, bedlamite, crazy, distracted, distraught, insane, loco, loony, mad, nuts, passionately fond, rabid, up the creek, up the pole, wild, wrong). (various references) | |
Thai | บ้าระห่ำ (foolhardy). (various references) | |
Turkish | zıpır, delifişek, delişmen (rambunctious, wild). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | урвиголова (desperado), шибайголова (dare devil, swashbuckler, tear away), безрозсудний (headlong). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người liều, người khinh suất (harum-scarum), người hay bốc đ"ng. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "madcap": madcaps. (additional references) | |
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"Madcap" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: macab, macca, maccah, Madc, mawdach, mdap, midcap, Muscamp. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "madcap" (pronounced ma"dka'p) |
| 3 | -k a' p | handicap, hubcap, kneecap, recap, skycap. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-d-m-p" | |
-2 letters: camp, damp, paca. | |
-3 letters: ama, amp, cad, cam, cap, dam, dap, mac, mad, map, pac, pad, pam. | |
-4 letters: aa, ad, am, ma, pa. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-d-m-p" | |
+1 letter: madcaps. | |
+2 letters: pachadom. | |
+3 letters: pachadoms, paramedic. | |
+4 letters: camelopard, campaigned, paramedics. | |
+5 letters: accompanied, camelopards, camphorated, dipsomaniac, emancipated, mispackaged, paramedical, psychodrama, pyramidical. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Sounds 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.