snow-blindness

/'snou'blaindnis/

Thân thiện

A hiker wears protective goggles to prevent snow-blindness on the glacier.

Definition

Noun: - Temporary vision impairment or blindness: A medical condition characterized by temporary loss of vision or severe eye pain and discomfort, caused by overexposure of the eyes to ultraviolet (UV) rays reflected from snow or ice. It is a form of photokeratitis, akin to a sunburn of the cornea.

Usage

• As a noun (typically uncountable): The term is used to describe the condition itself.
  • Proper goggles are essential to prevent snow-blindness when skiing at high altitudes.
  • The climbers suffered from snow-blindness after their expedition across the glacier.

Advanced Usage

• Medical Context: In technical or medical writing, "snow-blindness" is often discussed alongside other forms of photokeratitis and UV-related eye injuries.
  • The study compared the recovery time from snow-blindness to that from welder's flash.

Variants and Related Words

• Snow-blind (adjective): Describing someone affected by this condition.
  • After a day without eye protection, he was snow-blind and had to be guided back to camp.
• Photokeratitis (noun): The broader medical term for inflammation of the cornea caused by UV radiation, which includes snow-blindness as a specific type.

Synonyms

• Photokeratitis (technical synonym)
• Ultraviolet keratitis (technical synonym)
• Niphablepsia (rare, technical term)

Related Phrases

• To be snow-blinded: A verbal phrase describing the state of suffering from the condition.
  • Several members of the team were snow-blinded during the ascent.

Học thuật

Noun

1. temporary blindness caused by exposure to sunlight reflected from snow or ice

Từ đồng nghĩa

• snowblindness