# paranoid

/ˈpɛɹəˌnɔɪd/ (US) · /pˈæɹənˌɔɪd/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/paranoid
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. suspicious or worried

adjective · CEFR B2 · Informal

feeling extremely worried or suspicious that people do not like you or are trying to harm you.

For teachers: exhibiting excessive or irrational fear, suspicion, or distrust of others. Often used informally to describe general social anxiety or defensiveness.

- He felt paranoid that his coworkers were talking about him behind his back.
- The celebrity became increasingly paranoid about her privacy, eventually refusing to leave her home without a full security detail.

### 2. medical condition

adjective · CEFR C1 · Technical

relating to a serious mental illness where someone believes others are out to get them.

For teachers: relating to or suffering from clinical paranoia, a mental disorder characterised by systematised delusions. Typically used in a technical or diagnostic context.

- The patient showed paranoid symptoms and believed the doctors were spies.
- The psychiatrist noted that the patient's paranoid delusions were becoming more elaborate and resistant to cognitive intervention.

### 3. a suspicious person

noun · CEFR C2 · Informal

a person who is always suspicious or thinks others are trying to hurt them.

For teachers: a person suffering from paranoia or exhibiting extreme distrust. Often used as a label for someone perceived as irrationally fearful.

- Don't be such a paranoid; nobody is following you.
- He was dismissed by his colleagues as a paranoid who saw conspiracies in every minor policy change.

## Examples

- He felt paranoid that everyone in the office was laughing at him.
- She became paranoid about her online privacy after her email account was hacked last year.
- The protagonist's increasingly paranoid internal monologue creates a sense of claustrophobia, as he begins to interpret every coincidental event as a coordinated conspiracy against him.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.