Word.ws English Dictionary

dysnomia

/dɪsˈnəʊmiə//dɪs.ˈnoʊ̯.mi.ə/

dysnomia noun: anomic aphasia, a condition affecting the memory that impairs the recall of words or names.

Noun

dysnomia (countable and uncountable, plural dysnomias)

  1. Anomic aphasia, a condition affecting the memory that impairs the recall of words or names.
    • Dysnomia is a disorder in which a person has difficulty naming people or objects. Some sources consider it a milder form of anomia, which is a type of aphasia, or disorder of language. Dysnomia seems to be more clearly memory related and specifically related to a retrieval deficit. Presented with...2013, Annette Kujawski Taylor, Dysnomia, entry in Annette Kujawski Taylor (editor), Encyclopedia of Human Memory, ABC-CLIO (Greenwood), page 404
    Synonyms:
    amnesic aphasia, amnestic aphasia, nominal aphasia
  2. (developmental psychology) Impaired or deficient ability to recall words or names.
    • Dysnomia refers to a large group of children who talk and understand well but have difficulty with word retrieval.[…]Dysnomia is a well-established antecedent to stuttering or stammering.1989, J. P. Mohr, Manual of Clinical Problems in Neurology, Little, Brown, page 315
  3. (countable) An incident of a person not recalling a word or name.
    • Though we have no statistical data to back it up, our impression has been that medication prescribed for a child's behavioral problems, or for seizure control, sometimes have a stabilizing effect on these episodic dysnomias.1977, J. Gordon Millichap (editor), Learning Disabilities and Related Disorders, Year Book Medical Publishers, page 49
    • The delay in speech and language development, especially expressive function with auditory discrimination, dysnomias, word-finding difficulties, etc. implies that these children, especially in school situations, have difficulties in verbalizing experiences, as well as in reading and writing.1984, H.-J. Bandmann, R. Breit, E. Perwein, editors, Klinefelter's Syndrome, Springer, unnumbered page

Proper noun capitalized: Dysnomia

Dysnomia

  1. (Greek) The daemon (minor deity) of lawlessness, listed by Hesiod among the daughters of Eris.
    Synonyms:
    Eris I Dysnomia, Eris I, 136199 Eris I Dysnomia, 136199 Eris I, S, 2005 (2003 UB313) 1, Gabrielle
  2. The only known moon of the dwarf planet Eris.

Synonyms of dysnomia

  • amnesic aphasia
  • amnestic aphasia
  • nominal aphasia
  • Eris I Dysnomia
  • Eris I
  • 136199 Eris I Dysnomia
  • 136199 Eris I
  • S
  • 2005 (2003 UB313) 1
  • Gabrielle

Forms of dysnomia

pluraldysnomias

Origin of dysnomia

From Ancient Greek Δυσνομία (Dusnomía, literally “lawlessness”), from δύσνομος (dúsnomos, “lawless”).

Words formed from dysnomia

Questions about dysnomia

What does dysnomia mean?
Dysnomia means anomic aphasia, a condition affecting the memory that impairs the recall of words or names.
What part of speech is dysnomia?
Dysnomia can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dysnomia?
Dysnomia is pronounced /dɪs.ˈnoʊ̯.mi.ə/ (US).
What is the plural of dysnomia?
The plural of dysnomia is dysnomias.

Words near dysnomia in the dictionary

  1. dysmyelopoietic
  2. dysnatraemia
  3. dysnatremia
  4. dysnatremic
  5. dysnoesia
  6. dysnomia
  7. Dysnomian
  8. dysnomias
  9. dysnomic
  10. dysnomics
  11. dysnomy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dysnomia (page history and authors); Dysnomia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Dysnomia.wav.

Cite this entry: “dysnomia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dysnomia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.