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retrograde amnesia

American  

noun

  1. a memory disorder characterized by an inability to remember events or experiences that occurred before a significant point in time.


retrograde amnesia British  

noun

  1. amnesia caused by a trauma such as concussion, in which the memory loss relates to material learnt before the trauma Compare anterograde amnesia

"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

Etymology

Origin of retrograde amnesia

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Weronika had suffered a rare complication - unusual retrograde amnesia.

From BBC Feb. 25, 2025

He woke up in a cloud — he felt as if he had been “dropped cold, empty, neutral, cleansed,” as he later put it — with retrograde amnesia.

From Washington Post Nov. 2, 2021

“There are many alternative explanations for these correlations—say, retrograde amnesia, in which the forgetting is due to a brain injury.”

From Scientific American Apr. 6, 2021

While in prison, Madison suffered several strokes in recent years, resulting in brain damage, dementia and retrograde amnesia, court papers said.

From The Guardian Feb. 27, 2019

Psychiatrists explain the case as follows: The thing here involved is retrograde amnesia.

From Criminal Psychology; a manual for judges, practitioners, and students by Hans Gustav Adolf Gross

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