SANE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sane mean? 

• SANE (adjective)
  The adjective SANE has 2 senses:

1. mentally healthy; free from mental disorder

2. marked by sound judgment

  Familiarity information: SANE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SANE (adjective)

Comparative: saner   
Superlative: sanest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mentally healthy; free from mental disorder

Context example:

appears to be completely sane

Similar:

compos mentis; of sound mind (of sound mind, memory, and understanding; in law, competent to go to trial)

in her right mind; in his right mind; in their right minds (behaving responsibly)

lucid (having a clear mind)

Also:

rational (consistent with or based on or using reason)

Antonym:

insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)

Derivation:

saneness; sanity (normal or sound powers of mind)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by sound judgment

Synonyms:

reasonable; sane

Context example:

sane nuclear policy

Similar:

rational (consistent with or based on or using reason)

Derivation:

saneness (normal or sound powers of mind)

 Context examples 

“It looks like it. However, mad or sane, he tried,” returned Miss Mowcher.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad—as I am now.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"You beasts!" He was in a rage himself—a sane rage.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“I do not know, sir,” said I. “I am not very sure whether he's sane.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I couldn't speak then, for I felt my tongue was tied; but I was as sane then, except in that way, as I am now.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He was quite sane, yet he hated those men at mealtime.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

You cannot have forgotten the singular knife which was found in the dead man’s hand, a knife which certainly no sane man would choose for a weapon.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the meantime he was occupied by another idea, which he prided himself upon as being a particularly sane, careful, and modest idea.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It offended him both as a lawyer and as a lover of the sane and customary sides of life, to whom the fanciful was the immodest.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Thank heaven that there were two sane men—Lord John Roxton and myself—to prevent the petulance and folly of our learned Professors from sending us back empty-handed to London.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)