anesthesia

Alternative forms

• anaesthesia (alternative spelling)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /æn.əsˈθiːz.i.ə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /æn.əs.ˈθi.ʒə/

Noun

anesthesia (countable and uncountable, plural anesthesias)

1. (American, medicine) 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. The loss or prevention of sensation, as caused by anesthesia, lesion in the nervous system or other physical abnormality.
   • 1902', William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 4 & 5:

     In some individuals optimism may become quasi-pathological. The capacity for even a transient sadness or a momentary humility seems cut off from them as by a kind of congenital anæsthesia.

Anagrams

• Taishanese