Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

aphonia

[ey-foh-nee-uh]
See more synonyms for aphonia on Thesaurus.com
noun Pathology.
  1. loss of voice, especially due to an organic or functional disturbance of the vocal organs.
Show More

Origin of aphonia

1770–80; < New Latin < Greek: speechlessness. See a-6, phon-, -ia
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for aphonia

Historical Examples

  • If the recurrent laryngeal nerve be compressed, there will be dysphonia or aphonia.

    A System of Practical Medicine By American Authors, Vol. II

    Various

  • Both wounds gradually healed; but aphonia—the voice being reduced to a whisper—existed when the man left the regimental hospital.

  • The same may be said of feigned insanity, aphonia, deaf-mutism, and loss of memory.

  • There is no aphonia, a sign so typical of adult and of infantile beriberi, although at times the voice is abnormal and whining.

    Scurvy Past and Present

    Alfred Fabian Hess

  • It would cheer me considerably to learn that gobblers occasionally suffer from aphonia or speechlessness.

British Dictionary definitions for aphonia

aphonia

aphony (ˈæfənɪ)

noun
  1. loss of the voice caused by damage to the vocal tract
Show More

Word Origin

C18: via New Latin from Greek, from a- 1 + phōnē sound, voice
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for aphonia

n.

"want of voice, loss of voice, having no sound," 1719, from Modern Latin aphonia, from Greek aphonia "speechlessness," noun of quality from aphonos "voiceless," from a-, privative prefix (see a- (3)), + phone "voice" (see fame (n.)). Less-common anglicized form aphony is attested from 1827.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
aphonia in Medicine

aphonia

(ā-fō′nē-ə)
n.
  1. Loss of the voice resulting from disease, injury to the vocal cords, or psychological causes, such as hysteria.
Show More
Related formsa•phon′ic (ā-fŏn′ĭk, ā-fō′nĭk) adj.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.