Definitions

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

  • noun Loss of the ability to interpret sensory stimuli, such as sounds or images.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as agnœea.

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

  • noun The inability to recognize objects by use of the senses.

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

  • noun inability to recognize objects by use of the senses

Etymologies

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

[Greek agnōsiā, ignorance : a-, without; see a– + gnōsis, knowledge (from gignōskein, to know; see gnō- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἀγνωσία (agnōsia, "ignorance").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Cf. jamais vu.

    September 13, 2008

  • All his books described some flavor of agnosia — blindness to objects, blindness to places, blindness to age or expression or gaze.

    --Richard Powers, 2007, The Echo Maker, p. 148

    November 7, 2008

  • Also, face blindness or prosopagnosia.

    November 10, 2008

  • After an hour at MOMA, cantankerous modern paintings lose their edge and the viewer fights the onset of absolute agnosia and boredom.

    June 11, 2009

  • Kudos to laconic. May have to filch that usage sometime.

    June 12, 2009

  • JM knows agnosia would be dreadful for a reason he can't recall at the moment.

    February 14, 2010

  • We are bound by all we discern,

    Delighting in what we should spurn.

    The guru's symposia

    Will induce agnosia -

    To transcend we first must unlearn.

    February 23, 2016