amnesia
noun
am·ne·sia
am-ˈnē-zhə 
1
: loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness
2
: a gap in one's memory
3
: the selective overlooking or ignoring of events or acts that are not favorable or useful to one's purpose or position
… Americans seemed to develop a willful forgetfulness about the nation's longest military conflict, an amnesia that lasted for nearly a decade.—
Alan Brinkley
Alan BrinkleyExamples of amnesia in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Instead of a Mandela Effect, there is almost a collective amnesia among users on the social platforms, which results in the same images being shared and then debated over and over, while something from the past goes viral again years after the fact.
—Peter Suciu, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
These are impressive capabilities, to be sure, but they are limited by the amnesia of feed-forward neural networks.
—Zachary C. Lipton, IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2016
The crowd's acceptance of Trump's Detroit-on-the-rise spin was consistent with their collective amnesia or indifference to his logical inconsistencies throughout the evening.
—Philip Elliott / Detroit, TIME, 19 Oct. 2024
In a case like this, a dose of selective amnesia on your part might be beneficial.
—Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 17 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for amnesia 
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Peter Suciu, Forbes, 13 Dec. 2024
These are impressive capabilities, to be sure, but they are limited by the amnesia of feed-forward neural networks.
—Zachary C. Lipton, IEEE Spectrum, 26 Jan. 2016
The crowd's acceptance of Trump's Detroit-on-the-rise spin was consistent with their collective amnesia or indifference to his logical inconsistencies throughout the evening.
—Philip Elliott / Detroit, TIME, 19 Oct. 2024
In a case like this, a dose of selective amnesia on your part might be beneficial.
—Jeanne Phillips, The Mercury News, 17 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for amnesia
Dictionary Entries Near amnesia
Cite this Entry
“Amnesia.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amnesia. Accessed 31 Dec. 2024.
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Medical Definition
amnesia
noun
am·ne·sia
am-ˈnē-zhə
1
: loss of memory sometimes including the memory of personal identity due to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness or sometimes induced by anesthesia
a period of amnesia after the wreck
2
: a gap in one's memory
an amnesia concerning her high-school years
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