Albinism

Definition: Albinism

Albinism

Noun

1. The congenital absence of pigmentation in the eyes and skin and hair.

Date "albinism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1871. (references)

Specialty Definitions: Albinism

Domain	Definitions
Health	General term for a number of inherited defects of amino acid metabolism in which there is a deficiency or absence of pigment in the eyes, skin, or hair. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Albinism

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Albinism is a genetic condition which results in a lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin and hair. It is an inherited condition caused by altered genes being passed on from an individual's parents. Various problems with vision and eyesight can result from the condition. This entry is intended only to cover human albinism, although many of the features mentioned would probably also apply to albinism in animals.

Lack of Pigmentation

The altered gene which results in albinism prevents the body making the usual amounts of a pigment called melanin. Melanin helps protect the skin from ultraviolet light coming from the Sun (see human skin color for more information). People with albinism lack this protective pigment in their skin, and can burn easily from exposure to the Sun as a result. Lack of melanin in the eye results in problems with vision, as the eye will not develop properly without the pigment.

Individuals with albinism (called albinos) often have white hair and pale skin which makes them stand out from their families and friends, and from other members of their ethnic group. This can lead to social problems. Growth and development of children with albinism should be normal, however, as should their general health, life span, intelligence, and ability to have children.

Classification

There are two main types of albinism: oculocutaneous albinism (OCA), where melanin pigment is missing in the skin, hair and eyes, and ocular albinism (OA), where the melanin pigment is mainly missing from the eyes, and the skin and hair appear normal. OCA is more common than OA.

Visual Problems Associated with Albinism

People with albinism do not have normal vision. They may have varying degrees of partial-sightedness; either near-sighted or far-sighted. Individuals with these conditions may be helped by the use of glasses, but their vision cannot be corrected completely. Another common condition is nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes back and forth. Using a head tilt or turn may reduce the movement and improve vision.

People with albinism are often sensitive to light, a condition called photo-sensitivity. This is due to the iris allowing stray light to enter the eye. This sensitivity may lead to a dislike of bright lights, but does not prevent people with albinism enjoying the outdoors. As mentioned above, they should avoid prolonged exposure to bright sunlight, as their skin is particularly susceptible to sunburn.

Genetics

Snowdrop, an albino African Penguin, born at Bristol Zoo, Bristol, England. No other zoo in the world has an albino penguin and only two or three have ever been reported in the wild. Snowdrop would normally look like the background penguins.
Larger version

Albinism is a genetic condition which is inherited from an individual's parents. For OCA, an individual must inherit an altered albinism gene from both parents. Where an individual receives one albinism gene and one normal gene, that person will not show outward signs of the condition, but will become a carrier. Where two carriers have a child together, that child will have a one in four chance of getting two albinism genes and having albinism. The child will have one in four chances of getting neither albinism gene, having normal pigment, and not being a carrier. The child has two in four chances of getting one normal and one albinism gene, having normal pigment but being a carrier. The incidence of carriers in the British population is approximately 1 in 50.

To summarise, the lack of pigmentation which arises from the genetic inheritance of people with albinism can result in various visual problems, but need not prevent individuals leading a healthy, full and active life.

Animals

Albinism isn't just restricted to the human species - many other mammals also carry these genes. Albinism tends to be a little more hazardous to survival in the animal kingdom, where vision and pigmentation are usually strongly linked to survival. Bristol Zoo is the home to a very rare albino penguin named Snowdrop. Cats also can carry genetic Albinism. Along with the lack of pigmentation, a high percentage of Albino cats are also deaf.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Albinism."

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Crosswords: Albinism

English words defined with "albinism": achromia, albinal, albinic, albinistic, Albinoism, albinotic ♦ photalgia, photophobia. (references)

Specialty definitions using "albinism": albinism syndrome, Albinism, Ocular, Albinism, Oculocutaneous, Albino-poets ♦ Chediak-Higashi Syndrome ♦ Hermanski-Pudlak Syndrome ♦ oculocutaneous albinism type 2. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Albinism" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses.

Romanian (albinism).

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Commercial Usage: Albinism

Domain	Title
Books	Living With Albinism (First Book) (reference) Remarkable facts in human albinism and leukism (reference) Too White to Be Black and Too Black to Be White: Living With Albinism (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Albinism

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Melanocytes are cells containing melanin, a pigment that provides color to the skin, hair, and eyes. The skin and hair of a youngster with CHS lack color (partial albinism), while lack of pigment in the eyes makes the person overly sensitive to light. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Albinism

"Albinism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Albinism" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	15	90,616

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Albinism

Expressions using "albinism": albinism syndrome ♦ oculocutaneous albinism type 2. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Albinism

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
albinism	229
albinism picture	35
ocular albinism	33
albinism human	17
albinism people picture	10
albinism human picture	8
albinism cause	5
albinism human in	4
albinism animal in	3
albinism oculocutaneous	3
albinism hypopigmentation national organization	3
albinism occular	3
albino albinism	3
albinism information	2
albinism photo	2
albinism treatment	2
albinism hypopigmentation	2
albinism image	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translations: Albinism

Language		Translations for "albinism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Arabic		‏المهق. (various references)

Chinese		白化病 , 白化症. (various references)

Danish		albinisme (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Dutch		albinisme (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Finnish		albinismi. (various references)

French		albinisme (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism). (various references)

German		angeborener Farbstoffmangel (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Albinismus-Syndrom (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Albinismus (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Achromie (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Achromasie (achromasia, albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Weisssucht (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), Leukopathia universalis (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), kongenitale Leukaethiopie (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Greek		λεύκη (abele, albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, aspen, choroid, hair, poplar, retina and iris, vitiligo), λευκαιθιοπία, λευκοδερμία, αλβινισμόσ, αλβινισμός, αλφισμός (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Hebrew		לבק� ות, לב� � ות, ב�"קת (leukodermia), ב�"ק� ות (leukasmus). (various references)

Italian		Albinismo (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), acronia congenita (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), leucoderma congenito (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Pig Latin		albinismay

Portuguese		albinismo (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris), síndrome de albinismo (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Romanian		albinism. (various references)

Russian		альбинизм. (various references)

Spanish		albinismo (albinism syndrome, albinismus, albinoism, choroid, hair, retina and iris). (various references)

Swedish		albinism. (various references)

Turkish		albinizm, akşınlık. (various references)

Ukranian		альбінізм. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Albinism

Derivations
	Words beginning with "albinism": albinisms. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Albinism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ableism, Albeniz, albignac, albionis, Lavinium, rabbinism. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Albinism"

Words rhyming with "albinism" (pronounced 'Al"bi*nism'): Agonism, Anachronism, Antagonism, Antichronism, Autochthonism, Centonism, Cinchonism, Communism, Cyphonism, Diathermanism, Donnism, Essenism, Euphonism, Histrionism, Illuminism, Isochronism, Isogonism, Japonism, laconism, Mangonism, Marconism, Metachronism, Monogenism, Nanism, Neonism, Neoplatonism, Parachronism, Philanthropinism, Phrenism, Platonism, Plutonism, Polygenism, Polyphonism, Prochronism, Pyrrhonism, Pythonism, saturnism, Stercoranism, synchronism, Technism, Terminism, Theogonism, Tyronism, Ultramontanism. (additional references)

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Anagrams: Albinism

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: minilabs.
	Words within the letters "a-b-i-i-l-m-n-s"
	-1 letter: aiblins, minilab, mislain.
	-2 letters: ablins, alibis, animis, bialis, blains, blinis, limans, limbas, limina, saimin, simian, simlin.
	-3 letters: alibi, amins, anils, animi, bails, balms, basil, basin, biali, bimas, binal, blain, blams, blini, iambi, iambs, lambs, liman, limas, limba, limbi, limbs, limns, mails, mains, milia, minas, minis, nabis, nails, nimbi, sabin, salmi, slain, snail.
	-4 letters: ails.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-i-i-l-m-n-s"
	+1 letter: albinisms, binomials.
	+2 letters: lesbianism, subliminal, subminimal.
	+3 letters: cannibalism, habiliments, inestimable, inestimably, lesbianisms, marbleising, mislabeling, mislaboring, plebeianism, sublimating, sublimation.
	+4 letters: abolitionism, albuminurias, ambitionless, antiblackism, bibliomanias, bilingualism, cannibalisms, connubialism, diminishable, inadmissible, inadmissibly, misbalancing, mislabelling, plebeianisms, sublimations, subliminally.
	+5 letters: abnormalities, abolitionisms, administrable, amenabilities, antiblackisms, bibliomaniacs, bilingualisms, bimillenaries, bimillennials, blacksmithing, connubialisms, disassembling, discriminable, discriminably, embolizations, incompatibles, mensurability, misassembling, mobilizations, neoliberalism, republicanism, symbolization, transmissible, umbilications, unassimilable.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.