失明

• Pinyin: shī míng
• Hanzi breakdown: 失 = 手 + 乙 (to lose); 明 = 日 + 月 (brightness, clarity, vision)

Meaning

To lose one's sight; to go blind — whether through illness, injury, or a degenerative condition.

The standard medical and formal term for blindness or loss of vision. Used in medical, legal, and social welfare contexts. Collocations: 先天失明 (congenitally blind), 因病失明 (blind due to illness), 眼部受伤导致失明 (loss of vision due to eye injury). Occasionally used metaphorically for lacking insight or awareness, though this usage is rarer in Chinese than its equivalent in English.

Examples

1. 这位著名摄影师在一次意外中伤及双眼，医治无效后彻底失明，此后他转型为音频艺术家，开创了全新的创作领域。 A famous photographer injured both eyes in an accident; after treatment failed, he went completely blind and later reinvented himself as an audio artist, opening up a whole new creative field.
2. 白内障是全球最常见的致盲原因之一，但通过手术治疗，绝大多数患者的视力可以得到有效恢复。 Cataracts are one of the most common causes of blindness worldwide, but with surgery, the vast majority of patients can have their vision effectively restored.
3. 政府对因公或因病失明的特殊群体提供专项援助，包括生活补贴、无障碍辅具配发及职业技能培训。 The government provides targeted assistance to people who have gone blind due to work-related causes or illness, including living stipends, distribution of accessibility devices, and job-skills training.

Usage Guide

Context: medicine, disability, social welfare, law

Tone: empathetic

Do Say

• 世界卫生组织的数据显示，全球至少有二十亿人存在视力损伤，其中相当一部分因缺乏及时治疗而走向失明，这一状况在低收入国家尤为突出。(WHO data shows that at least two billion people worldwide have some form of vision impairment; a considerable proportion progress to blindness due to a lack of timely treatment, a situation especially pronounced in low-income countries.)
• 这所医学院的科研团队经过多年潜心研究，成功开发出一种新型基因疗法，有望为遗传性眼病导致失明的患者提供根治性治疗方案。(After years of dedicated research, the research team at this medical school successfully developed a novel gene therapy that shows promise as a curative treatment for patients who have lost their sight due to hereditary eye diseases.)

Don't Say

• 失明 metaphorically for someone who is wilfully ignoring an obvious truth in casual speech — in formal contexts 失明 exclusively denotes actual vision loss; use 视而不见 or 蒙蔽 for metaphorical blindness

Origin & History

失 (to lose) + 明 (sight, brightness, clarity)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal