de·men·tia

[dih-men-shuh, -shee-uh]
noun Psychiatry.
severe impairment or loss of intellectual capacity and personality integration, due to the loss of or damage to neurons in the brain.

Origin:
1800–10; < Latin dēmentia madness, equivalent to dēment- out of one's mind (see dement) + -ia noun suffix

de·men·tial, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To dementia
Collins
World English Dictionary
dementia (dɪˈmɛnʃə, -ʃɪə) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
a state of serious emotional and mental deterioration, of organic or functional origin
 
[C19: from Latin: madness; see dement]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Dementia is always a great word to know.
So is gobo. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

dementia
1806, L. noun of state from dementem, from dementer (see dement). It existed earlier in an anglicized form, demency (1520s), from Fr. démence. Dementia præcox is a Mod.L. form recorded from 1899 in Eng., 1891 in Ger., from Fr. démence précoce (1857). See precocious
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

dementia de·men·tia (dĭ-měn'shə)
n.
Deterioration of intellectual faculties, such as memory, concentration, and judgment, resulting from an organic disease or a disorder of the brain, and often accompanied by emotional disturbance and personality changes.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
dementia   (dĭ-měn'shə)  Pronunciation Key 
Deterioration of intellectual faculties, such as memory, concentration, and judgment, sometimes accompanied by emotional disturbance and personality changes. Dementia is caused by organic damage to the brain (as in alzheimer's disease), head trauma, metabolic disorders, or the presence of a tumor.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
He diagnosed her with frontotemporal dementia.
Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases.
It worked out, mostly because she avoided the dementia that afflicts so many
  people her age.
Their ignorance is encyclopaedic, their dementia incurable, their self-regard
  limitless.
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT