Words that have been used as terms for synaesthesia in popular, scientific or clinical literature

Words that have been used as terms for synaesthesia in popular, scientific or clinical literature

synaesthesia - a standard, sensible contemporary term used by writers and researchers in the UK

synesthesia - a standard, sensible contemporary term used by writers and researchers in the US

chromesthesia - coloured musical notes, a specific type of synaesthesia

chromagraphemia / chromagraphemic synesthesia / chromatographemic synesthesia - terms used for colour-grapheme synaesthesia, a relatively common type of synaesthesia, coloured letters, coloured numbers.

synopsia - "the hearing of colors", a specific type of synaesthesia

color hearing / colour-hearing - a specific type of synaesthesia

number-forms / number form etc - a specific type of synaesthesia in which numbers are always visualized in a specific and often most idiosyncratic spatial arrangement when the synaesthete thinks about numbers

photism / photisms

phonism / phonisms

secondary sensation *

synaesthesis

psychochromesthesia

colored thinking


Words that have been used for people who have synaesthesia

synaesthete - a standard, sensible contemporary term used by writers and researchers in the UK

synesthete - a standard, sensible contemporary term used by writers and researchers in the US

chromesthete

chromesthetic

synesthesiac

synesthetics


* a term used by Boris Sidis, psychologist and psychiatrist, in his description of synaesthesia published in 1914. Dr Sidis appears to have had a generally negative view of the mental health of synaethetes, although he asserted that synaesthesia can be found in "normal persons". Boris Sidis is perhaps most famous now for being the father of William James Sidis, a child prodigy with an incredibly high IQ score, who grew up to be a college mathematics teacher and later a recluse. Father and son were both polyglots. They did not have a good relationship. W. J. Sidis has been posthumously diagnosed as autistic. In light of contemporary genetic research linking synaesthesia with the autistic spectrum and anecdotal evidence linking synaesthesia with unusual abilities, I can't help wondering whether synaesthesia was a condition that ran in the Sidis family.