English

Noun

blindness ‎(usually uncountable, plural blindnesses)

1. The condition of being blind; unable to see.
2. (figuratively) Want of intellectual or moral discernment; mental darkness; ignorance, heedlessness.
   • 1976, Frank Herbert, Children of Dune

     A tormenting hunger shuddered through her and she wished she could put aside the power. Oh, to be as others were — blind in that safest of all blindnesses, living only the hypnoidal half-life into which birth-shock precipitated most humans.

3. (obsolete) concealment

Synonyms

• ablepsy (rare)
• cecity
• sightlessness

Derived terms

• colour blindness, color blindness
• deaf-blindness, deafblindness
• snow blindness
• stereoblindness

Translations

See also

• anosmia
• deafness

References

• blindness in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• “blindness”, in OED Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.