Severe hearing loss is best described as

• A. Difficulty hearing faint or distant speech or sound
• B. May or may not be able to distinguish between sounds
• C. Total deafness in one ear
• D. Hearing loss that is limited to one ear

Answer: (B)

Severe hearing loss means a substantial drop in hearing that makes understanding speech difficult without amplification, yet there can still be some residual hearing. Because of this, the ability to distinguish between different sounds can vary from person to person—sometimes certain phonemes or louder sounds are perceptible, other times they are not. That variability is captured by describing it as “may or may not be able to distinguish between sounds.” The other statements refer to aspects that aren’t defining of severe loss: difficulty with faint or distant sounds can occur at many levels of loss; total deafness in one ear describes unilateral loss, not the general bilateral severe case; and hearing loss limited to one ear also refers to unilateral involvement rather than the severity level itself.