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psychopathic

psychopathic

23 9.3
Not caring about others and often hurting them
  • adjective
  • /ˌsaɪkəˈpæθɪk/
translation icon : psicopático
  • Ted Bundy is a classic example of the psychopathic and organized serial killer.

Well, these people are psychopathic and extraordinarily greedy.

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Examples

  • May I remind you that we have a psychopathic murderer on the loose here?

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Your Honor, a psychopathic predator will always be a threat to society.

  • Moss has no choice but to go after a psychopathic killer pursuing him.

    Blog text (20)
  • Many in mainstream society characterize gang members as psychopathic and sociopathic, yet understand relatively little about them.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The criminal psychologist explained how the psychopathic traits of the suspect influenced his violent behavior.

  • After years of research, the team found a significant correlation between childhood trauma and psychopathic symptoms in adults.

  • The documentary delved into the mind of a psychopathic individual, highlighting their lack of empathy and manipulative behavior.

Synonyms

sociopathic
vspsychopathic
  • Specialized
23 9.1

A person who does not care about other people's rights or feelings

is marked by abnormal or violent social behavior

Antonyms

1.0

Usual or expected in most situations

61 2.3

Having good judgment and acting reasonably

Compounds

1 9.0

A person who feels no guilt and often hurts or lies to others

Surface Forms

psychopathic positive

Morphology

psychopathic = psychopathy (opaque) = psycho + path + ic

The word is built on the specialized noun 'psychopathy' plus the adjective suffix '-ic', but the technical combining forms are not fully recoverable for an average learner from the surface form alone.

Etymology

Psychopathic comes from the roots psych- meaning 'mind', as in psychology, and -path meaning 'suffering' or 'disease', as in sympathy. So, psychopathic points to a 'mind disease', which helps explain why we use it for someone with a serious mental disorder whose behaviour can be very abnormal or even violent.