aphasia

noun

apha·​sia ə-ˈfā-zh(ē-)ə 

medical : loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words usually resulting from brain damage (as from a stroke, head injury, or infection)

Aphasia, the cruel illness resulting from a stroke, allowed Jean to understand what was said to her but prevented her from clearly replying.

—Robert Giroux

aphasic

ə-ˈfā-zik 

noun or adjective

Examples of aphasia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

At the time, the family explained that Willis, now 69, was suffering from aphasia, a disorder that causes difficulties when writing and speaking. —Mark R. Weaver, Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2024

In March 2022, the family announced Willis would retire from acting amid an aphasia diagnosis. —Jay Stahl, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2024

Then in February of this year, her medical team released a statement on Williams' FTD and aphasia diagnosis. —Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 27 Nov. 2024

It's been nearly a year and a half since Wendy Williams has been photographed out in public, and only six months since her team revealed the famous talk show host had been diagnosed with dementia and aphasia. —Caroline Thayer, Fox News, 28 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French aphasie, from a- a- entry 2 + Greek phásis "utterance, statement" (from pha-, variant stem of phēmí, phánai "to say, speak" + -sis -sis) + French -ie -ia entry 1 — more at ban entry 1

Note: French aphasie was introduced by the physician Armand Trousseau (1801-67) in "De l'aphasie, maladie décrite récemment sous le nom impropre de l'aphémie," Gazette des hôpitaux civils et militaires, tome 37, issue of January 12, 1864, pp. 13-14. As is evident from the title, Trousseau preferred aphasie to the term aphémie, introduced earlier by physician and anthropologist Pierre Paul Broca (1824-80). Broca replied in defense of his coinage in a letter published in the same periodical on January 23. The controversy, with translated extracts from Gazette des hôpitaux, is summarized by John Ryalls in "Where does the term 'aphasia' come from?," Brain and Language, vol. 21 (1984), pp. 358-63. Though Trousseau's arguments are linguistically not at all sound, his choice has nonetheless prevailed.

First Known Use

1864, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

aphasia

noun

apha·​sia ə-ˈfā-zh(ē-)ə 

: loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words usually resulting from brain damage (as from a stroke, head injury, or infection) see motor aphasia compare amusia, anarthria