hypo-, hyp-

A less than normal amount of hair on the head and/or body. Synonyms: hypotrichiasis, oligotrichia, oligotrichosis.

1. Congenital deficiency or sparsity of hair.
2. Diminished growth of hair.

A reference to the Hypotricha, an order of the class Ciliata of Protozoa, having the locomotive cilia confined to the ventral (stomach) surface.

1. Incomplete growth; atrophy.
2. Progressive degeneration of an organ or tissue caused by loss of cells.
3. Wasting that is often the result of recent nutritional deficiencies.

1. Abnormally slow and shallow respiration, resulting in an increased level of carbon dioxide in the blood.
2. A condition in which there is a reduced amount of air entering the pulmonary (lung) alveoli (small cell containing air in the lungs), resulting in decreased levels of oxygen and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood.

Hypoventilation can be a result of breathing that is too shallow (hypopnea) or too slow (bradypnea) or to diminished lung function.

1. A physical disorder resulting from nonspecific vitamin deficiency.
2. A condition due to a deficiency of one or more essential vitamins.

1. A condition characterized by abnormally low levels of oxygen in the blood and tissues.
2. In ecology, a condition in which inadequate environmental oxygen is available to an organism.

The "Dead Zone" off the Louisiana coast mapped during the last week of July, 2006, is reported to be 6,662 square miles; or about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Chief Scientist for Northern Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Studies reported on Friday. The low oxygen waters extended from near the Mississippi River to the Louisiana-Texas border.

Agricultural runoff in the vast area drained by the Mississippi River contributes most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients that feed a population boom of algae. As the algae die, they fall to the bottom. Their decay consumes oxygen faster than currents can bring it down from the surface.

In psychiatry, the same as asphyxiophilia; a sexual perversion in which hypoxia [an abnormal condition resulting from a decrease in the oxygen supplied to body tissue] and the altered state of consciousness it produces is an essential part of sexual arousal.

Hypoxia may be induced by drugs or by strangling or hanging; some classify such autoerotic asphyxiation as a form of sexual masochism.

Anterior (in front of) in age to the lowest rocks which contain organic remains.

Defective or absent function of the entire pituitary gland.

1. Excessive growth caused by the action of light.
2. Hyponasty which is the result of exposure to intense light following an arrest of growth.

1. Organisms that accumulate near the surface of water at night but live at lower levels during the day.
2. Aquatic organisms which gather near the surface at night but spend their days in the main water mass.

A reduced perception of touch.