from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A sound in one ear or both ears, such as buzzing, ringing, or whistling, occurring without an external stimulus and usually caused by a specific condition, such as an ear infection, the use of certain drugs, a blocked auditory tube or canal, or a head injury.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. The perception of noise, such as a ringing or beating sound, which has no external source.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. A ringing, whistling, or other imaginary noise perceived in the ears; -- called also tinnitus aurium.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In medicine, a ringing in the ears.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a ringing or booming sensation in one or both ears; a symptom of an ear infection or Meniere's disease
The word tinnitus comes from the Latin for ringing, and people hear noises ringing, buzzing, whistling in one or both ears, or in their heads.
I forget you are deaf Flo, my tinnitus is a constant nuisance.
The columnist states that tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud noise.
One cause of tinnitus is exposure to loud noise: for example, in the U.S., nearly half of the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who were exposed to explosions or gunfire suffer from it.
In many people, the source of the tinnitus is idiopathic (no known cause).
One of the challenges in researching tinnitus is developing an animal model.
God, I'm old, but I have no interest in tinnitus tonightus.
Flor believes tinnitus is also a kind of phantom sensation, so her group tried using the same principle in reverse to treat it.
• Long-term tinnitus affects around one in every 100 according to Department of Health statistics, and is most common in older people.
ear/nose/throat specialist in Atlanta , who shared the following information about long-term tinnitus and possible treatments.