Amnesia
noun /æmˈniː.zi.ə/ — The partial or total loss of memory — especially of one's own past.
Definition
A deficit in memory caused by brain injury, psychological trauma, or illness. Can be retrograde (losing memories already formed) or anterograde (inability to form new ones). In everyday use: any significant forgetting of something one would be expected to remember.
Beyond the definition
Amnesia is most frightening not because of what is lost, but because the person often doesn't know what is missing. The gaps don't announce themselves. Life simply continues with holes in it — conversations repeated, faces unrecognised, a past that has silently been cleared. The people around the person with amnesia often grieve more than they do.
Origin & history
From Greek amnesia, from amnēstos (forgotten) — a- (not) + mnasthai (to remember). Greek mnasthai shares a root with 'mnemonic' and the Muse Mnemosyne (goddess of memory), whose name literally means memory. To have amnesia is, etymologically, to be cut off from the Muse.
Example sentences
Illustrative sentences for learning, not verified community posts or sourced quotations.
She had no memory of the accident — just amnesia where those three hours should have been.
His amnesia was selective in a way that felt almost deliberate: he remembered everything except the argument.
There is a kind of emotional amnesia that follows heartbreak — a merciful blurring of the sharpest details.
How to use it
This entry uses a noun. Follow the examples for articles and singular or plural forms; not every noun takes “a” or “an.”
Choose “Amnesia” when the meaning fits your context: A deficit in memory caused by brain injury, psychological trauma, or illness. Can be retrograde (losing memories already formed) or anterograde (inability to form new ones). In everyday use: any significant forgetting of something one would be expected to remember.
Synonyms
memory loss, forgetfulness, blackout, blank, oblivion
Antonyms
total recall, hypermnesia, eidetic memory, perfect memory
Related words
- confabulation
- oblivion
- lethologica
- repression
Word in the Wild
See how this word appears in life, language and stories.
Illustrative sentences and imagined stories for learning — not verified sightings, interviews, or sourced quotations.
Fictional scene
The Trauma of Lost Memories
An adult holds a faded photograph and a worn toy from a tin, struggling to retrieve the childhood memories they belong to.
The keepsakes represent fragments of a past that is no longer accessible. Whether due to trauma or illness, the inability to connect these objects to a formed narrative reflects the deficit of memory that defines amnesia.
Image credit: Wordspun · AI-generated illustration
Questions about this word
What does "Amnesia" mean?
Amnesia is noun meaning: The partial or total loss of memory — especially of one's own past.. A deficit in memory caused by brain injury, psychological trauma, or illness. Can be retrograde (losing memories already formed) or anterograde (inability to form new ones). In everyday use: any significant forgetting of something one would be expected to remember.
Which words express “losing your memories”?
Amnesia — The partial or total loss of memory — especially of one's own past.
Where does the word "Amnesia" come from?
From Greek amnesia, from amnēstos (forgotten) — a- (not) + mnasthai (to remember). Greek mnasthai shares a root with 'mnemonic' and the Muse Mnemosyne (goddess of memory), whose name literally means memory. To have amnesia is, etymologically, to be cut off from the Muse.