color blindness
noun
inability to distinguish one or several chromatic colors, independent of the capacity for distinguishing light and shade.
complete inability to distinguish colors of the spectrum, with all objects appearing as shades of gray, black, and white, varying only as to lightness and darkness; achromatopsia.
Nearby words
coloptosis, colopuncture, coloquintida, color, color bar, color blindness, color charge, color chart, color circle, color code, color filter
Origin of color blindness
First recorded in 1835–45
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Word Origin and History for colorblindness
color blindness
1844, replacing Daltonism (after English chemist John Dalton, 1766-1844, who published a description of it in 1794); in figurative use, with reference to race or ethnicity, attested from 1866, American English. Related: color blind (adj.).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Medicine definitions for colorblindness
color blindness
n.
Deficiency of color perception, whether hereditary or acquired, partial or complete.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Culture definitions for colorblindness
colorblindness
A defect in perception of colors, caused by a deficiency of certain specialized cells in the retina that are sensitive to different colors. The condition may be partial (as in “red-green colorblindness,” in which a person cannot distinguish red from green), or complete (in which the person sees all colors as gray).
Note
By extension, the law is said to be colorblind in its judgments, which are supposed to ignore a defendant's race.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.