aphantasia

English

WOTD – 7 September 2025

Etymology

From a- (prefix meaning ‘opposite of; without’) +‎ phantasia, from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, prefix forming words having senses opposite to the stems or words to which the prefix is attached) + φᾰντᾰσῐ́ᾱ (phăntăsĭ́ā, “appearance, look; image; impression, perception”).[1] Φᾰντᾰσῐ́ᾱ (Phăntăsĭ́ā) is derived from φᾰ́ντᾰσῐς (phắntăsĭs) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns); and φᾰ́ντᾰσῐς (phắntăsĭs) from φᾰντᾰ́ζω (phăntắzō, “to make visible, show; to become visible”), from φᾰντός (phăntós, “visible”), from φαίνω (phaínō, “to cause to appear, reveal; to give light, shine”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to be visible, appear; to shine”). The English word was coined by the British neurologist Adam Zeman (born 1957) and his collaborators Michaela Dewar and the Italian neurologist Sergio Della Sala (born 1955) in a 2015 article published in Cortex.[2]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌeɪ.fænˈteɪ.zɪ.ə/, /ˌeɪ.fænˈteɪ.ʒə/
  • Audio (Southern England); /ˌeɪ.fænˈteɪ.zɪ.ə/:(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˌeɪˌfænˈteɪ.zi.ə/, /ˌeɪˌfænˈteɪ.ʒə/
  • Audio (General American); /ˌeɪˌfænˈteɪ.ʒə/:(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪzɪə, -eɪʒə
  • Hyphenation: a‧phan‧ta‧sia

Noun

aphantasia (uncountable)

  1. (pathology, psychology) A condition where one does not possess a functioning "mind's eye" and cannot visualize imagery. [from 2015]
    Coordinate term: anauralia
    • 2015 June 22, Carl Zimmer, “Picture this? Some just can’t”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 4 April 2024:
      Certain people, researchers have discovered, can't summon up mental images—it's as if their mind's eye is blind. This month in the journal Cortex, the condition received a name: aphantasia, based on the Greek word phantasia, which Aristotle used to describe the power that presents visual imagery to our minds. […] If aphantasia is real, it is possible that injury causes some cases while others begin at birth.
    • 2020 July 15, Serena Puang, “Living with aphantasia, the inability to make mental images”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 April 2024:
      That's when I discovered I had aphantasia, the inability to conjure mental images. Little is known about the condition, but its impact on my education led me to wonder about how it might be impacting others. […] [A]phantasia not only impacts people's learning experiences; it also extends into their personal lives. Not being able to visualize means never picturing the faces of family or close friends and remembering images as abstract information.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “aphantasia, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ Adam Zeman, Michaela Dewar, Sergio Della Sala (December 2015), “Lives without Imagery – Congenital Aphantasia”, in Cortex: A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior, volume 73, Milan: Elsevier Masson, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 378–380: “[…] φαντασíα, phantasia, is the classical Greek term for imagination, […]. We propose the use of the term ‘aphantasia’ to refer to a condition of reduced or absent voluntary imagery.”

Further reading

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