Meaning & use
anesthesia
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Meanings
noununcountable
Medical treatment that blocks pain, either in one part of the body or by putting the patient into a deep sleep for an operation.
Grammar: Uncountable: she was under anesthesia; you do not say an anesthesia.
Patterns
- under anesthesia
- anesthesia for something
The surgeon operated while the patient was under general anesthesia.
The dentist used local anesthesia to numb my jaw.
She woke slowly as the anesthesia wore off.
noununcountabletechnical
The state of having lost feeling in the body or part of it, whether from drugs or from nerve damage.
Grammar: Uncountable and mostly technical: the injury caused anesthesia in the hand.
Patterns
- anesthesia of something
Nerve damage led to anesthesia in two of his fingers.
The doctor tested for any anesthesia along the scar.
Common combinations
- general anesthesia
- The operation requires general anesthesia.
- local anesthesia
- Only local anesthesia was needed for the stitches.
- under anesthesia
- He remembered nothing because he was under anesthesia.
- administer anesthesia
- A specialist will administer the anesthesia before surgery.
- anesthesia wears off
- The anesthesia will wear off in a few hours.
Synonyms and how they differ
- numbness
- Numbness is the everyday feeling of having no sensation and may come from cold or injury, while anesthesia is usually medical and often deliberate.
- sedation
- Sedation calms or relaxes a patient but does not always remove all feeling, as anesthesia does.
- analgesia
- Analgesia removes pain only, while anesthesia can remove all sensation or consciousness.
Opposites
Word family
- anesthetic noun
- a drug that causes loss of feeling
- anesthetic adjective
- relating to a loss of feeling
- anesthetist noun
- a specialist who gives anesthetics (British usage)
- anesthesiologist noun
- a doctor who gives anesthesia and monitors patients
- anesthetize verb
- to make a person or body part unable to feel
Commonly confused: anesthesia or anesthetic? anesthesia or analgesia?
anesthesia vs anesthetic
Anesthesia is the condition or treatment, while an anesthetic is the drug used to produce it.
anesthesia vs analgesia
Analgesia means relief from pain only, but anesthesia can include total loss of feeling.
Practice
The patient felt nothing during the operation because she was under general ___.
Choose one answer.
Under general anesthesia is the standard phrase for being unconscious for surgery. Analgesia only reduces pain, hypnosis is not a surgical treatment in this phrase, and hydration means having enough water.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “anesthesia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.