dyscalculia
/ˌdɪskælˈkjuːli.ə/noun
dyscalculia is a noun meaning “A learning disability characterized by significantly below average mathematical ability” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-Y-S-C-A-L-C-U-L-I-A, and it appears about once in every 14 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of dyscalculia is dyscalculias.
What does dyscalculia mean?
noun
- 1
A learning disability characterized by significantly below average mathematical ability.
Some educators think requiring students with dyscalculia to study math in high school is a mistake because the dyscalculic students are unlikely to be capable of learning math.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce dyscalculia?
- /ˌdɪskælˈkjuːli.ə/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-dyscalculia.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dyscalculia
- dyscalculias plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 111,684th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Dyscalculia in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pathology: difficulty with numbers:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dyscalculie |
| German | Dyskalkulie, Rechenschwäche |
| Portuguese | discalculia |
| Spanish | discalculia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does dyscalculia come from?
From dys- (from Ancient Greek δυσ- (dus-, “bad”)) + calculate (from Latin calculare).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).