These words refer to extreme states of confused and disordered action. Frantic is the most general in that it does not of itself suggest the reason for the extreme state: frantic with fear; a frantic dash for the departing train. The word does suggest desperation and ineffective haste; it also may stress action taken under extreme pressure: the frantic pace of the big cities. Hectic is specific in exclusively stressing this last sense of frantic . The note of desperation is not necessarily present, and the word may simply refer hyperbolically to a rush of events: those hectic days after the first discovery of gold; the hectic traffic during peak hours. Frenetic also relates to this sense of frantic , but it may suggest suspense and excitement rather than the desperation of frantic or the busy swiftness of hectic : the frenetic last minutes of the tied basketball game; the frenetic race against the printer’s deadline.

Both hectic and frenetic have roots or older uses that refer to a feverish physical illness. Only delirious would now be pertinent in this context, since it can literally suggest the confused mental state resulting from a fever. In other uses, it escapes the specific situation of physical illness, referring instead to wild excitement; but it still hyperbolically suggests a confused, helpless or disordered mental state: the grandstand crowd that was flushed with victory and delirious with joy; the delirious new dances that emphasize self-isolation and dehumanizing incoherence. Frantic , used in a favourable sense, compares with delirious here. As a term of approbation, it may stress a wild aliveness or a joyfully giddy whirl: a frantic party; The music was frantic .

Frenzied intensifies the note of desperation in frantic; it suggests a person completely out of control, one who is goaded or driven by external or internal pressures to act in a completely disorganized way: the charging bull, frenzied by frequent woundings; the rioters shouting frenzied accusations. Furious , by contrast, suggests a fierceness of behaviour stemming mainly from anger. The word is not nearly so intense as these other words. A person might be furious , but not give the slightest sign of his emotional state; or he might give vent to his furious anger, but still remain in control of himself: his cold but furious summation to the jury. The word may also merely suggest haste, like frantic or hectic : fast and furious ; the furious rapids above the waterfall.