numbness

nounB2+2 meanings Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,603 of 15,258neutral

Numbness is a loss of feeling in part of the body. Numbness in the fingers, sudden numbness, a spreading numbness.

Sudden numbness down one side is a stroke warning and needs emergency help. Ordinary numbness usually means a nerve is compressed, which is why a leg goes dead when you sit on it. The word also describes emotional deadness after a shock. Note the silent b.

Definitions of numbness

1nounnumbnessA loss of feeling in part of the body.B2+
“After the dentist's injection, she felt numbness in her lip for hours.”
2nounfeelingA state of feeling no emotion at all, often after a shock or a loss.B2
“After the funeral she felt nothing but a strange numbness.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

Also practised as

nounFeeling nothing at all where feeling should be.

Where it comes from

From numb + -ness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health

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numbness in the wild

Symptoms of acute compartment syndrome (ACS) include severe pain, decreased blood flow, decreased movement, numbness, and a pale limb.
Compartment syndrome
Signs and symptoms include low back pain, pain that radiates down the leg, numbness around the anus, and loss of bowel or bladder control.
Cauda equina syndrome
In everyday speech this is generally referred to as numbness.
Hypoesthesia
Initial symptoms often include tingling or itching which can progress to numbness.
Trench foot
Symptoms include pain, muscle weakness, and sensory deficits (numbness).
Plexopathy

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

numb

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