tritanopia

T1R1I1T1A1N1O1P3I1A1

noun

A form of color blindness in which the retina is deficient in or lacks cone cells containing opsins that respond to the color blue, resulting in an inability to distinguish blue from green.

Similar
blue-blindness
Scrabble 12

Meanings

nountritanopia (countable and uncountable, plural tritanopias)

plural tritanopias

  1. countableuncountablemedicineA form of color blindness in which the retina is deficient in or lacks cone cells containing opsins that respond to the color blue, resulting in an inability to distinguish blue from green.

    People with an inborn blue-green blindness (tritanopia) may completely lack the function of these receptor cells.[…]The inheritance of inborn tritanopia is not sex-linked; the gene for the S-cone opsin is localized to chromosome 7.

    2016, Daniel Kernell, Colours and Colour Vision: An Introductory Survey, page 167
    2 more examples

    Tritanopia is an extremely rare hereditary condition corresponding to a loss in function of the short wavelength sensitive cones. To produce transient tritanopia, the eye of the normal observer is first strongly adapted to a yellow light that maximally adapts the pigment of the long and middle wavelength cones, but has relatively less influence on the short wavelength sensitive cones.

    1990, T. E. Frumkes, “7: Classical and Modern Psychological Studies of Dark and Light Adaptation”, in K. Nicholas Leibovic, editor, Science of Vision, page 203

    1997, M. Alpern, K. Kitahara, D. H. Krantz, 9: Perception of Colour in Unilateral Tritanopia, Alex Byrne, David R. Hilbert (editors), Readings on Color, Volume 2: The Science of Color, page 231, M. Alpern et. al 1983 gives results of colour matching and colour discrimination for each eye separately of a subject who acquired tritanopia in his left eye while remaining a normal trichromat with his right one.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounrare form of dichromacy characterized by a lowered sensitivity to blue light resulting in an inability to distinguish blue and yellow

Similar
blue-blindness
Broader
yellow-blue dichromacyyellow-blue color blindness

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From trito- (“third (color)”) + an- (“without”) + -opia (“vision”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 蓝色盲, 第三色盲
  • 蓝色盲a form of color blindness
  • 第三色盲a form of color blindness
Finnish tritanopia, sinisokeus
  • tritanopiaa form of color blindness
  • sinisokeusa form of color blindness
Portuguese tritanopia
  • tritanopiaa form of color blindness

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

tritanopia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia

MLA

“tritanopia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tritanopia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia.

Source: tritanopia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.