anesthesia

Meaning

1. (Canada, US, countable, uncountable) An artificial method of preventing sensation, used to eliminate pain without causing loss of vital functions, by the administration of one or more agents which block pain impulses before transmitted to the brain.
2. (US, countable, uncountable) The loss or prevention of sensation, as caused by anesthesia (in the above sense), or by a lesion in the nervous system, or by another physical abnormality.
3. (broadly, countable, metonymically, often, proscribed, uncountable) A medication that provides the service of temporarily blocking sensation.

Opposite of

aesthesia

Synonyms

anaesthesia

narcosis

anaesthesia

anesthetization

unconsciousness

numbness

unfeelingness

absence of feeling

insensitivity

feel numb

insentience

insensibility

senselessness

Translations

anesthésie

anestesia

anestesia

Anästhesie

anestesia

anesthesie

تخدير

verdoving

Betäubung

anestèsia

Narkose

αναισθησία

anœsthésie

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˌæn.əsˈθiːz.i.ə/

Etymology

Sense of “insensibility” attested since 1679, from New Latin anaesthēsia, from Ancient Greek ἀναισθησία (anaisthēsía, “without sensation”), from ἀν- (an-, “not”) and αἴσθησις (aísthēsis, “sensation”). By surface analysis, an- + -esthesia.
Sense of “state induced by an agent” attested since 1846.