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

amnesiac

am-ˈnē-zhē-ˌak 

-zē-

adjective or noun

or amnesic

am-ˈnē-zik 

-sik

Examples 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

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin amnēsia, borrowed from Greek (Septuagint) amnēsía "forgetfulness," variant of amnēstía — more at amnesty entry 1

First Known Use

1772, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

amnesia

noun

am·​ne·​sia am-ˈnē-zhə 

: severe loss of memory

amnesiac

-z(h)ē-ˌak 

adjective or noun

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