schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder where you perceive things incorrectly, often imagining things that are not real.

(noun)

An example of schizophrenia is a mental disorder where a person begins to hear voices in his head and believe they are real.

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See schizophrenia in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

  1. a major mental disorder of unknown cause typically characterized by a separation between the thought processes and the emotions, a distortion of reality accompanied by delusions and hallucinations, a fragmentation of the personality, motor disturbances, bizarre behavior, etc., often with no loss of basic intellectual functions: this term has largely replaced dementia praecox, since it does not always result in deterioration (dementia) or always develop in adolescence or before maturity (praecox)
  2. multiple personality disorder
  3. Informal a situation, state of mind, etc. in which widely conflicting opinions, ideas, or practices coexist, often resulting in indecision, vacillation, wavering, etc.

Origin: ModL < schizo- + Gr phrēn, the mind + -ia

See schizophrenia in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances. Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and may have an underlying genetic cause.
  2. A situation or condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities: the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war.

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