aphasia
/əˈfeɪzɪə
/noun [mass noun] Medicine
Inability (or impaired ability) to understand or produce speech, as a result of brain damage. Compare with aphonia.Initially expected to make a satisfactory recovery from the head injury, she subsequently suffered a stroke that left her with aphasia, diminished cognitive abilities, and a seizure disorder....
- I had not had seizures like this before - not with such severe aphasia, such an inability to ask for help and to help myself.
- He was able to map language centers in the brain by observing lesions in patients suffering from aphasia.
Derivatives
aphasic
/ adjective & noun ...- Although awake at times, she was aphasic and incommunicative, at least to the physicians.
- The receptive aphasics among the participants detected that the woman was lying 73 percent of the time.
- In April 1860, he had suddenly become unconscious, and although he partly recovered, he remained aphasic.
Origin
Mid 19th century: from Greek, from aphatos 'speechless', from a- 'not' + phanai 'speak'.