Terms Used To Describe Assorted Dysfunctions of The Senses of Smell and of Taste

Prefixes.

• A- or An- : Without
• Caco- : bad, vile
• Dys- : Impaired
• Heter- or Hetero- : different (opposite of homo)
• Hyper- : greater than normal
• Hyp- or Hypo- : less than normal
• Nor- or Norm-: normal
• Par- or Para- : faulty (distorted)
• Phant- : hallucinatory

Stems.

• Geusia: sense of taste
• Osmia: Sense of smell

Put them together to produce words I have seen others use.

• Anosmia -- no sense of smell
• Cacosmia -- inappropriate perception of vile odors, including coprosmia (smelling feces) and necrosmia (the smell of death)
• Dysosmia -- any impairment of the sense of smell, but this term is usually used to describe distortions of smell such as Cacosmia, Parosmia, Phantosmia, Heterosmia, and Olfactory Agnosia (inability to interpret, classify, or contrast odors, despite being able to detect odors)
• Heterosmia - Inability to distinguish between certain odors
• Hyperosmia -- overly acute sense of smell
• Hyposmia -- diminished sense of smell
• Normosmia -- normal sense of smell
• Parosmia -- distorted sense of smell
• Phantosmia -- olfactory hallucinations
• Ageusia -- no sense of taste
• Cacogeusia -- bad taste in the mouth
• Dysgeusia -- any impairment of the sense of taste
• Heterogeusia - Inability to distinguish between tastes
• Hypergeusia -- overly acute sense of taste
• Hypogeusia -- diminished sense of taste
• Parogeusia -- distorted sense of taste

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This page most recently revised on 26. April 2003.