What is the medical term for nearsightedness?

The medical term for nearsightedness is myopia. This condition occurs when the eye is too long relative to the focusing power of the cornea and lens, or when the cornea has too much curvature. As a result, light entering the eye focuses in front of the retina, causing distant objects to appear blurry while close objects can be seen clearly. Understanding myopia is essential for recognizing how vision correction might be achieved through glasses, contact lenses, or refractive surgery.

Other terms like presbyopia refer to age-related changes in the eye that cause difficulty in focusing on close objects, strabismus denotes misalignment of the eyes, and glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that can lead to vision loss due to damage to the optic nerve, none of which pertain to nearsightedness.