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

Matt Damon may be suiting up with a Linothorax for Christopher Nolan’s hotly anticipated The Odyssey, but that doesn’t mean his run as a CIA agent suffering from dissociative amnesia has necessarily come to a close. —Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 13 June 2026

Guy Pearce stars as Leonard, a man with amnesia struggling to put the pieces together of who killed his wife. —Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 6 June 2026

Juliette survived her brush with an inferno at the close of season 2, but she's come down with a case of amnesia after her ordeal. —Jeff Spry, Space.com, 4 June 2026

Anger gave way to anxiety, which gave way to amnesia. —Jonathan Odden, Artforum, 2 June 2026

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

Rhymes for amnesia

• atresia
• babesia
• anaesthesia
• analgesia
• anesthesia
• dyskinesia
• paresthesia
• hyperalgesia
• hyperesthesia

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