Meanings
plural tritanopias
- 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 1672 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 2031997, 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
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
tritanopia. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia
“tritanopia.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tritanopia,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tritanopia.
Source: tritanopia on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.