blindness

English

Etymology

From Middle English blyndnes, blyndnesse, from Old English blindnes (“blindness”), equivalent to blind +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblaɪndnəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: blind‧ness
• Rhymes: -aɪndnəs

Noun

blindness (usually uncountable, plural blindnesses)

1. The condition of being blind; unable to see.
2. (figuratively) Want of intellectual or moral discernment; mental darkness; ignorance, heedlessness.
   • 1976, Frank Herbert, Children of Dune:

     A tormenting hunger shuddered through her and she wished she could put aside the power. Oh, to be as others were — blind in that safest of all blindnesses, living only the hypnoidal half-life into which birth-shock precipitated most humans.

3. (obsolete) concealment

Synonyms

• ablepsy (rare)
• blindhood (rare)
• cecity
• sightlessness

Derived terms

• ad blindness
• banner blindness
• color-blindness
• colour-blindness
• colour blindness, color blindness
• day blindness
• day-blindness
• deaf-blindness
• deafblindness
• domestic blindness
• face blindness
• hysterical blindness
• inattentional blindness
• legal blindness
• letter blindness
• moon blindness
• motion blindness
• night blindness
• nose blindness
• perceptual blindness
• place blindness
• race-blindness
• river blindness
• smell blindness
• snow-blindness
• snow blindness
• stereoblindness
• time-blindness
• willful blindness
• word blindness
• word-blindness

 

Translations

condition of being blind

• Arabic: عَمًى m (ʕaman)
• Armenian: կուրություն (hy) (kurutʻyun)
• Aromanian: urbari f, urbeatsã f
• Asturian: ceguera (ast) f
• Belarusian: слепата́ f (sljepatá)
• Bengali: অন্ধত্ব (bn) (ondhotto)
• Bulgarian: слепота (bg) f (slepota)
• Catalan: ceguesa (ca) f
• Chichewa: khungu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 盲目性 (zh) (mángmùxìng)

• Czech: slepota (cs) f
• Danish: blindhed (da) c
• Dutch: blindheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: blindeco
• Estonian: pimedus
• Faroese: blindleiki m, blindi n, blindni n
• Finnish: sokeus (fi)
• French: cécité (fr) f
• Galician: cegueira (gl) f
• Georgian: სიბრმავე (sibrmave), უსინათლობა (usinatloba)
• German: Blindheit (de) f
• Greek: τύφλωση (el) f (týflosi), τυφλότητα (el) f (tyflótita)

  Ancient: τυφλότης f (tuphlótēs)

• Hebrew: עיוורון m (yvaron)
• Hindi: अंधापन (andhāpan), अंधता (hi) (andhtā)
• Hungarian: vakság (hu)
• Irish: daille f
• Italian: cecità (it) f
• Japanese: 盲目 (ja) (もうもく, mōmoku)
• Kalmyk: бала (bala)
• Khmer: ភាពពិការភ្នែក (phiəppikaaphnɛɛk), ភាពខ្វាក់ (phiəpkhvak)
• Korean: 장님 (ko) (jangnim)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کوێری (kwêrî), kwêrî

  Northern Kurdish: korî (ku) f, korahî f

• Latin: caecitās f
• Macedonian: слепило n (slepilo)
• Malayalam: അന്ധത (ml) (andhata)
• Mongolian: сохор (mn) (soxor)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blindhet (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: blindskap m

• Persian: نابینایی (nâbinâyi)
• Polish: ślepota (pl) f
• Portuguese: cegueira (pt) f
• Romanian: orbire (ro) f
• Russian: слепота́ (ru) f (slepotá)
• Scottish Gaelic: doille f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: слепило n / сљепило n, слепоћа f / сљепоћа f

  Roman: slepilo (sh) n / sljepilo (sh) n, slepoća f / sljepoća f

• Slovak: slepota f
• Slovene: slepota f
• Spanish: ceguera (es) f
• Swahili: upofu (sw)
• Swedish: blindhet (sv) c
• Telugu: అంధత్వము (te) (andhatvamu), గుడ్డితనం (te) (guḍḍitanaṁ)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: körlük (tr)
• Turkmen: körlük
• Ukrainian: сліпота́ f (slipotá)
• Vietnamese: chứng mù

See also

• anosmia
• deafness

References

• “blindness”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “blindness”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.