blindness

English

Etymology

From Middle English blindnes, from Old English blindnysse; morphologically as if blind +‎ -ness.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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)
• cecity
• sightlessness

Derived terms

• colour blindness, color blindness
• deaf-blindness, deafblindness
• snow blindness
• stereoblindness

Translations

condition of being blind

• Arabic: عَمًى‏‎ m (ʿaman)
• Armenian: կուրություն (hy) (kurutʿyun)
• Aromanian: urbari f, urbeatsã f
• Asturian: ceguera f
• Bengali: অন্ধত্ব (ôndhôtb)
• Bulgarian: слепота (bg) f (slepota)
• Catalan: ceguesa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 盲目性 (zh) (mángmùxìng)

• Czech: slepota (cs) f
• Dutch: blindheid (nl) f
• Esperanto: blindeco
• Estonian: pimedus
• Faroese: blindleiki m, blindi n, blindni n
• Finnish: sokeus (fi)
• French: cécité (fr) f
• Galician: cegueira f
• Georgian: სიბრმავე (sibrmave), უსინათლობა (usinatloba)
• German: Blindheit (de) f
• Greek: τύφλωση (el) f (týflosi), τυφλότητα (el) f (tyflótita)
• Hebrew: עיוורון‏‎ m (yvaron)
• Hungarian: vakság (hu)
• Italian: cecità (it) f
• Japanese: 盲目 (ja) (もうもく, mōmoku)
• Kalmyk: бала (bala)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 장님 (ko) (jangnim)

• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: korî (ku) f, korahî f

  Sorani: کوێری‏‎ (ku) (kwêrî)

• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: blindhet (no) m, 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 (sh) f

• Slovak: slepota f
• Slovene: slepota f
• Spanish: ceguera (es) f
• Swedish: blindhet (sv) c
• Telugu: అంధత్వము (te) (aṃdhatvamu), గుడ్డితనం (te) (guḍḍitanaṃ)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: körlük (tr)
• Turkmen: körlük
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• anosmia
• deafness

References

• blindness in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• “blindness”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.