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.

Words nearby color blindness

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. 2020

Medical definitions for colorblindness

color blindness

n.

Deficiency of color perception, whether hereditary or acquired, partial or complete.

Cultural 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).

notes for colorblindness

By extension, the law is said to be colorblind in its judgments, which are supposed to ignore a defendant's race.