a-, an-

A type of partial or total loss of language skills due to brain damage: "The patient who had ataxic aphasia could not speak well enough to be understood and even his writing was so unrecognizable that no one could determine what he was trying to communicate."

A medical condition that results in the lack of proper coordination of the speech muscles: "After the girl's uncle had a stroke, it appeared that he developed ataxiophemia and was unable to use his muscles to speak clearly."

1. An excessive fear of disorder, disarray, disarrangement, or of being in an untidy situation: "Some ataxiophobiacs have obsessive-compulsive disorders that are persistent, intense, senseless, and worrisome; in fact, they tend to be so excessive at keeping things in order that they make it nearly impossible to exist with others who are of a less-than-orderly nature."
2. An abnormal fear of falling or tripping: "Ataxia is a lack of co-ordination in the muscles which is a symptom of damage to part of the central nervous system and so people who have ataxiophobias may be that way because of their experiences in swaying or even falling down; especially, if they close their eyes even for a second."

A mental dread of disorder or chaos: "Every time the couple went to visit the husband's aunt, her ataxophobia appeared to increase because she was constantly rearranging things on her shelves or dusting things; to such a degree, that it was impossible to carry on much of a conversation with her."

A reference to a geological condition in which the crust of the earth is not deformed or shifted to create mountains: "The geologist's research of the earth tremors in the area indicated that there was atectonic evidence that such quakes were not the beginning of any internal structures of mountains."

Absence of integration or successful completion: "The psychiatrist diagnosed his patient as having atelesis or a disintegration or dissociation of different psychic functions because of her schizophrenic disjunction (separation of something normally joined together) between her inner and outer worlds."

"Atelesis has been used by psychiatrists to refer to three major disjunctions that are well known in schizophrenic psychopathology:

• Disjunction of a person's inner world and environment (autism or phantasies, delusions, hallucinations, etc.).
• Disjunction of one's ego and the contents of consciousness (splitting or incomplete ego development).
• Disjunction of someone's experience contents and the elementary forms of mental perception (destruction of conscious and willful focusing on one object or one component at a time).

An imperfect or incomplete development of the body or any of its parts: "At the time of the child’s birth, the doctors advised the parents that their daughter was born with atelia and that she would grow up with an incomplete development of her body, as in a condition of infantilism in which an older child or adult keeps infantile or childish characteristics."

1. A form of infantilism (immaturity) that is a result of pituitary insufficiency, in which there is arrested growth (lack of physical development) but no deformities: "Because of the woman's ateliosis, she had a very small body and her voice and face resembled those of a child even though she was over 50 years old."
2. Incomplete development which may refer to psychic infantilism or puerilism, to mental retardation, and/or to physical dwarfism (microsomia): "The unusual acting troupe consisted of people with atelioses; that is, they were dwarfish in stature but they were wonderful actors and none of them had any mental retardations."

Godlessness, disbelief in, or denial of, the existence of a God or any gods: "In contrast to his upbringing by his uncle, a pastor in the local church, her cousin declared that he was devoted to atheism because he could not believe in God."

1. Someone who does not believe in a God or gods or who denies the existence of a God, gods, or deities: "An atheist believes there is no God while an agnostic believes human beings can never know whether there is a God or not."
2. A person who denies, or disbelieves, that there is a supreme being or beings: "His friend, who is an atheist, enjoys having long philosophical discussions with the archbishop of the local church."
3. A disbeliever, an unbeliever, a nonbeliever, a denier of God's existence, a godless person: "She believes in the existence of God, but her brother is an atheist."
4. Etymology: from French athéiste, from ancient Greek atheos, "godless, denying the gods"; from a-), "without, no" + theos), "god".

1. A description of a person who denies the existence of god: "Because of his atheistic beliefs, the young man chose to go for a walk in the forest rather than to go to church."
2. Related to or characterized by a denial of being real or present in any form: "The psychologist's atheistic beliefs contrasted with those of her college roommate who was a deeply devoted Christian."

1. A reference to a belief that no deities or gods exist: "The professor's essay regarding the atheistical practices of the ancient tribes was read with great interest by the students in his anthropology classes."
2. Related to the absence of belief in a particular deity, pantheon, or religious doctrine: "The archaeologist was studying an ancient atheistical culture that apparently had no religious structure."

1. Without fever or with no rise of temperature: "Since the woman's temperature didn't get any higher, the doctor was relieved to see that she was getting closer to the athermic condition that he was striving to achieve for her."
2. Not pervious (not open to passage or entrance) to heat or heat-rays: "The athermic coating on the space shuttle proved to be successful when it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere."
3. Afebrile or characterized by the absence of fever: "After a worrisome night, the baby seemed to be athermic and now had a cool forehead and no fever."
4. Heatless: "It was speculated that many of the planets in the solar system were of an athermic nature; that is, they had no natural heat."

1. A name formerly given to absence of feeling or emotion, as seen in depression or the dysthymic disorder: "In the aunt’s journals, which were written 100 years ago, she referred to experiencing a state of athymia which sounded as if she were depressed."
2. Apathy, emotional indifference, or unresponsiveness: "Because of her persisting athymia, the doctor prescribed a mild anti-depressant."

"The athymia of the patient was expressed by the fact that she didn't care if she got any better or not, nor whether she would live or die."

3. A congenital lack at birth of a thymus gland (an organ situated in the center of the upper chest just behind the breastbone that assists the immune system): "The doctor noted that, given the athymia of her patient, a regimen of medications to counter the inherent immunodeficiency was necessary."

Descriptive of someone or something that can not produce offspring: "Atokous creatures may become nonproductive because of some form of sterility; such as, dogs, cats, bulls, etc."

"There are those who become atokous people by having their reproductive organs removed, either by choice or because they have genetically transmissible disabilities, etc."

"Other atokous examples include making some plants incapable of bearing fruit or germinating; or the rendering of land that makes it unfruitful because of chemicals, excessive salt, etc."