derange means to cause (someone) to go insane or become deranged. It carries an Arena rating of 1746, earned across 137 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, derange ranks #306 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #504 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #731 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,755 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
derange is pronounced /dɪˈɹeɪnd͡ʒ/.
Why “derange” is a great word
DERANGE — [Verb] To disturb the normal order, function, or mental state of something or someone. From French déranger, from Old French desrengier (“throw into disorder”), from des- (“do the opposite of”) + rengier (“to put into line”), from reng (“line, row”), from a Germanic source akin to rank. Unlike disarrange, which scatters objects within a system, or unhinge, which suggests a catastrophic mental breach, to derange is to corrupt a system's foundational logic from within. It is the gear stripped of its teeth, the rogue variable that collapses a delicate equation, and the intrusive thought that unravels a thread of consciousness—a quiet violence done to the very architecture of order.
Etymology
From French déranger, from Old French desrengier (“throw into disorder”), from des- + rengier (“to put into line”), from reng (“line, row”), from a Germanic source. See rank (noun).
verb
- To cause (someone) to go insane or become deranged.
- To cause disorder in (something); to distort from its ideal state.e.g.“Both these kinds of monopolies derange more or less the natural distribution of the stock of the society;” — 1776, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations:
- To cause to malfunction or become inoperative.
- To disrupt (somebody's) plans, to inconvenience; to derail.e.g.“"By no means, Sir," answered the Captain: "I shall be quite au désespoir if I derange any body."” — 1782, Fanny Burney, Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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