impairment

[ im-pair-muhnt ]

noun

1. the state of being diminished, weakened, or damaged, especially mentally or physically:

   cognitive impairment in older adults.

Word History and Origins

Origin of impairment¹

impair + -ment

Example Sentences

Families shoulder these responsibilities because about 70 percent of assisted living residents have some form of cognitive impairment, including dementia.

From Voice of San Diego

For web users with visual impairment using screen readers, descriptive alt text is read aloud.

From Search Engine Watch

Many nursing home residents have some degree of mental impairment — nearly half of long-term care patients suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s.

From ProPublica

This makes your content accessible for people with visual impairments and makes sure Google correctly interprets what those visual elements are.

From Search Engine Watch

We did all sorts of metabolic studies to try to find out if there was an impairment we could detect.

From Quanta Magazine

The fewer diagnostic criteria required to call a person impaired, the more “any difficulty whatsoever” can be deemed impairment.

From The Daily Beast

A more precise association of THC levels and degrees of impairment are not yet available.

From The Daily Beast

Yet in this case, the degree of impairment seems to have been similar on both sides.

From The Daily Beast

There were some memory lapses, there were some major issues … we found no evidence of any kind of major impairment.

From The Daily Beast

Seizure disorder, severe developmental delays and neurological impairment, feeding tube and tracheotomy.

From The Daily Beast

It was an acid test of his sanity and he knew as he worked that his reasoning faculties at least had suffered no impairment.

From Project Gutenberg

From these details it is evident that epilepsy is not of necessity associated with impairment of the physical or mental health.

From Project Gutenberg

That is to say, if he feels himself compelled to the commission of crime, there is surely an impairment of responsibility.

From Project Gutenberg

A bad rippling, any serious accidental or temporary impairment of the faculties, meant swift death.

From Project Gutenberg

There are certain deductions, a certain percentage of impairment to be allowed for, but the general statement holds.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• damage
• deficiency
• detriment
• harm
• hurt
• injury
• weakness