Initialism of mutual assured destruction.
"The researcher explained that she was studying genes in fruit flies because her lab focuses on mad signaling pathways."
Acronym of mothers against decapentaplegic.
In plain English: A mad is an informal British word for a person who has gone crazy or lost their mind.
"The whole team was in a mad rush to finish the project before the deadline."
Usage: Do not use "mad" as a noun to refer to the genetic acronym MyoD; instead, spell out the full term or use the symbol Mad when discussing fruit fly development genes. In everyday conversation, reserve this word for its standard adjective meaning of angry or insane rather than treating it as a standalone noun.
To be or become mad.
"The sudden noise from upstairs made him go completely mad."
In plain English: To make someone feel extremely angry or upset.
"The sudden noise mad him jump in fright."
Usage: As a verb, mad means to make someone angry, such as when loud noises mad him furious. It is often used in informal speech and should not be confused with the adjective meaning insane.
marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion
"a crowd of delirious baseball fans"
"something frantic in their gaiety"
"a mad whirl of pleasure"
very foolish
"harebrained ideas"
"took insane risks behind the wheel"
"a completely mad scheme to build a bridge between two mountains"
Insane; crazy, mentally deranged.
"The neighbors called the police because that man was walking around naked screaming about aliens controlling his thoughts."
In plain English: Mad means extremely angry or furious.
Usage: In everyday conversation, use "mad" to mean extremely angry rather than insane, as saying someone is "mad" usually implies they are furious. Reserve the meaning of being mentally deranged for formal contexts or specific regional dialects like Australian English.
Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.
"The traffic was so mad that we never made it to the concert on time."
In plain English: Mad means extremely angry or furious.
"I am mad at you for being late."
Usage: Do not use "mad" as an adverb in modern English; instead, pair it with intensifiers like "very" or "really." The word "mad" functions only as an adjective meaning angry or insane, so saying something is "mad crazy" is grammatically incorrect.
Acronym of Michigan algorithm decoder, a programming language, a variant of ALGOL, developed in 1959 at the University of Michigan.
"The legacy codebase was written entirely in MAD, which made it difficult for modern developers to maintain without specialized knowledge from the late 1950s."
The word mad comes from Old English ġemǣded, which originally meant "enraged." It entered modern usage as the past participle of a verb meaning to make someone insane or foolish.