AUTISM

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does autism mean? 

• AUTISM (noun)
  The noun AUTISM has 1 sense:

1. (psychiatry) an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people

  Familiarity information: AUTISM used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUTISM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(psychiatry) an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("autism" is a kind of...):

syndrome (a pattern of symptoms indicative of some disease)

Domain category:

psychiatry; psychological medicine; psychopathology (the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "autism"):

infantile autism (a rare but serious syndrome of childhood characterized by withdrawal and lack of social responsiveness or interest in others and serious linguistic deficits)

Derivation:

autistic (characteristic of or affected with autism)

 Context examples 

Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disorders that affect how a person behaves, interacts with others, communicates, and learns.

(Asperger Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

Copy number variation for the gene is associated with schizophrenia and autism.

(ASTN2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Autism is a disorder that is usually diagnosed in early childhood.

(Autism, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

The individual, however, displays no delay in language or cognitive development, which differentiates Asperger Syndrome from autism.

(Asperger Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

Enabling machines to understand human behavior also could enable new approaches to behavioral diagnosis and rehabilitation for conditions such as autism, dyslexia and depression.

(Computer that Reads Body Language, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In essence, we are beginning to link molecular and macroscopic levels of analysis to better understand the diversity and complexity of autism.

(Scientists link genes to brain anatomy in autism, University of Cambridge)

Finally, the new study found that genetic variants associated with lower empathy are also associated with higher risk for autism.

(Study finds that genes play a role in empathy, University of Cambridge)

Mutations in this gene are associated with cortical dysplasia-focal epilepsy syndrome and may be involved in autism and the DFNB13 form of nonsyndromic deafness.

(CNTNAP2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Mutations in the gene may be associated with autism or Down syndrome.

(NCAM2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Aberrant expression of the gene may contribute to colon cancer and autism.

(NRP2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)