megalomania
/ˌmɛɡ(ə)lə(ʊ)ˈmeɪnɪə
/noun [mass noun]
1Obsession with the exercise of power.His brash style and megalomania also make him enemies....
- World domination, absolute power and obsessive megalomania - there's been a lot of it about.
- This conviction frequently prompts its spokespersons to make irritating declarations that border on megalomania, the odious or the comical.
Synonyms
delusions of grandeur, obsessionalism, grandiosity, grandioseness;
self-importance, egotism, conceit, conceitedness;
French folie de grandeur
1.1Delusion about one’s own power or importance (typically as a symptom of manic or paranoid disorder).The paper has opened a nationwide debate on whether he should be allowed to continue in power now that he is revealing signs of megalomania and paranoia....
- It was the least of his transgressions in a career notable for its paranoia, deceptions, moral vacuum and megalomania.
- But Napoleon was probably beginning to suffer from megalomania: he had succeeded to such a tremendous extent that perhaps all things seemed possible.
Derivatives
megalomanic
- Here we find many of the more megalomanic conclusions: ‘I am God’; ‘I want to be the brightest light, the greatest sun.’
- Seriously, just how do people get these megalomanic notions?
- His extensive knowledge of historical style contributed to, but was submerged beneath, forms dictated by megalomanic fantasies.