狂う
Meaning in Englishgo mad, go wrong, be out of order
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
What does 狂う mean? It means to go mad or crazy, to lose one's mental balance, and it can also describe something that runs out of control or goes out of order, especially clocks or mechanisms.
Main meanings
- Mental derangement or loss of sanity
- Uncontrolled or irrational behavior
- Erratic or unpredictable change in state or action
- Malfunction or going out of order for a device such as a clock
- Figurative sense: deviation from expected plans, beliefs, or outcomes
How to use it
Used as an intransitive verb to describe mental states such as losing self-control or sanity, intense emotions, or things like clocks and mechanisms that stop aligning; appropriate for both casual and formal contexts; conjugates as a standard godan verb.
Variants and close terms
- go mad, kuruu
- lose control, kuruu
- go insane, kuruu
- opposite: keep one's head, shōki o tamotsu
Composition
- 狂: madness, frenzy; う is the verb ending that marks the word as a verb; together they form to become mad or to go wild
Etymology
From classical 狂ふ (kurau) with old kana ふ; sound shift to kuruu in modern Japanese; the verb form uses the kanji meaning madness to express becoming wild or unhinged.
Origin
Old Japanese; attested in classical literature with the sense of frenzy, later generalizing to losing one's sanity and to things going out of order.
Word class
verb (動詞・自動詞・五段)