Dysacusis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Difficulty in hearing or a painful sensitivity to ordinary sounds, a condition affecting how the ear perceives noise
2. A disorder of the sense of hearing in which sounds are perceived incorrectly or cause discomfort to the listener
3. Any abnormal state of the auditory system that makes normal sounds hard to hear or unpleasantly intense

Etymology: Dysacusis is built from two Greek pieces. The prefix "dys-" meant "bad, difficult, abnormal," as in "dyspepsia" (bad digestion), while the second element comes from "akousis," the Greek word for hearing, itself tied to "akouein," to hear or listen. Put together, the term describes hearing that has gone wrong rather than hearing that has been lost. That distinction is the heart of the word. Where deafness means failing to hear, dysacusis means hearing too much of the wrong thing: sounds arrive distorted, mismatched in pitch, or so harsh that ordinary noise becomes painful. The Greek roots were available to medical writers for describing such conditions, and the same pattern produced the related "hyperacusis," where normal sounds are felt as unbearably loud.

Synonyms: deafness, hearing loss, hypoacusis, hearing impairment