amelia

name

1. A female given name from the Germanic languages.

   “By their dresses, their names, and the airs of quality they give themselves, I am rendered ridiculous among all my acquaintance. My wife, who is a very plain good woman, and whose name is Amey, has been new-christened, and is called Amelia; and my little daughter, a child of a year old, is no longer Polly, but Maria.”

   “We must have heard it first on the battery radio, the news about Amelia Earhart, lost over the ocean. […] Air Heart, I saw it spelled, Amelia ... a name like a soft, bold bird.”

   “In September 2023, Amelia Stafford was 15 and beginning her sophomore year at Terra Linda High School in eastern Marin County, Calif.”

2. The alternative name for Amelia Courthouse, Amelia County, Virginia, US.

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)The congenital absence of one or more limbs.

   “As already mentioned, limb deficiencies – amelias and meromelias – represent an important group of limb abnormalities.”

   “The newborn examination confirms the diagnosis of amelia and distinguishes it from other limb deficiencies (e.g. terminal transverse defects) and sirenomelia.”

   “2021, Femi Oyebode, Psychopathology of Rare and Unusual Syndromes, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Cambridge University Press, page 179, Furthermore, the fact that people with amelia can experience phantom limbs, despite never having had any limbs, points to the existence of neural systems ready to respond to sensory inputs from limbs.”