noun
mutism
Medical term for the inability or refusal to speak, often used in psychiatric or neurological contexts.
緘黙症の子どもは、学校で話すことができない。
A child with mutism cannot speak at school.
選択性緘黙症は、特定の状
Selective mutism is a condition where a person cannot speak only in specific situations.
Aphasia, a language disorder caused by brain damage, distinct from mutism which is a refusal or inability to speak without necessarily having language impairment.
From 緘 (kan, 'to seal') + 黙 (moku, 'silent') + 症 (shō, 'condition'), literally 'sealed-silence condition'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the term is a modern medical coinage.