face blindness

noun

variants or less commonly facial blindness

medical

: a form of visual agnosia characterized by an inability to recognize faces : prosopagnosia

… my face blindness is pretty mild. I recognize most of my family members, but when I attend my wife's family functions, I am often lost.

—The Buffalo (New York) News

People with face blindness see individual features, such as the eyes, nose and mouth, but lack the ability to integrate them into a coherent, recognisable face.

—Rebecca Ley

Some people are born with face blindness … while others lose the ability to identify faces from brain damage, typically caused by a stroke or brain injury.

—Karen Weintraub

… the award-winning actor says in a new interview with GQ that he suffers from facial blindness, also known as prosopagnosia, causing him to struggle to remember people's faces.

—Chloe Melas

Examples of face blindness in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Oliver suffers from face blindness, which leads him to take an unconventional approach to connecting with his patients. —Sara Donnellan, Chicago Tribune, 4 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1997, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for face blindness

• kindness
• unkindness