blindness
English
Etymology
From Middle English blyndnes, blyndnesse, from Old English blindnes (“blindness”), equivalent to blind + -ness.
Pronunciation
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
blindness (usually uncountable, plural blindnesses)
- The condition of being blind; unable to see.
- (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.
- (obsolete) concealment
Synonyms
- ablepsy (rare)
- blindhood (rare)
- cecity
- sightlessness
Derived terms
Translations
condition of being blind
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See also
References
- “blindness”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “blindness”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -ness
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Vision