prosopagnosia

[proh-soh-pag-noh-zhuh, -zhee-uh, -zee-uh, prahs-uh-]

noun

Neurology, Pathology.

1. a neurological disorder, unrelated to impaired vision or memory dysfunction, that makes the recognition of faces extremely difficult or impossible.

   The seemingly healthy woman was diagnosed with prosopagnosia after failing to identify her parents, her husband, herself, or any of her children from a collection of photographs.

prosopagnosia

/ ˌprɒsəpæɡˈnəʊszɪə /

noun

1. an inability to recognize faces

Word History and Origins

Origin of prosopagnosia¹

First recorded in 1950; from Greek prósōp(on) “face, person” ( prosopopoeia ( def. ) ) + agnosia ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of prosopagnosia¹

C20: from Greek prosōpon face + _agnosia

Example Sentences

Acquired prosopagnosia is rarer and “can arise in a variety of neurological conditions, including stroke, tumor, and degenerative dementia.”

Read more on Washington Post

Last month Brad Pitt, an actor from movies like "Fight Club" and "Troy," said that while he has not been officially diagnosed, he believes that he has prosopagnosia, a neurological disorder that causes face blindness.

Read more on Salon

Esteemed actor Brad Pitt, who won an Academy Award for his performance in "Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood," revealed in a recent interview that he may suffer from the neurological disorder known as prosopagnosia.

Read more on Salon

Face blindness, or prosopagnosia, is an inability to recognize people’s faces.

Read more on Washington Post

In Dr. Freud’s study, 13 percent of participants struggled so much to recognize masked faces that they may as well have suffered from prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

Read more on New York Times