Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Absence of oxygen.
  • noun A pathological deficiency of oxygen, especially hypoxia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) a physiological state in which insufficient oxygen reaches the tissues of the body, especially when of sufficient severity to cause permanent damage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A condition in which a tissue or environment is severely or totally deprived of oxygen, severe hypoxia.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun severe hypoxia; absence of oxygen in inspired gases or in arterial blood or in the tissues

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[an– + ox(o)– + –ia.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an- + ox(ygen) + -ia.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Oxygen is brought into our blood via the lungs, whence it rides the blood to our every extremity. It is vital for aerobic respiration, which produces energy from oxygen and glucose. Without it we expect to simply feel weak, to collapse and, if the process comes to its conclusion, die. But instead we are treated to the ultimate in virtual reality: out-of-body experiences, visions of light, giddiness and extasy. We may recover and find that we have found God. Or we may fail to recover and find Him anyway.

    December 3, 2006