All the types in the table are linked to their respective pages.
The percentages are very approximate and are based on the existing studies and on personal intuition in the cases for which there are no figures. They refer to the percentage of the synesthetic population that could have each type. The synesthetic population probably consists of around 4% of the general population.
The lists of types in each of the four boxes are ordered alphabetically, not from more to less common.
*Marked with an asterisk: as I have not been able to find any conclusive studies, I have taken the liberty of making an estimate based on what I have read and observed over the last few years.
**Marked with two asterisks: these are personal impressions as it is currently impossible to establish a prevalence for these types. See the note at the end of this page as to why not.
|
More than 50% |
15% – 50% |
1% – 15% |
Less than 1% |
|
Very common |
Common |
Not so common |
Uncommon |
Grapheme-colour (letters, written words, numbers) (Grapheme-colour can actually be considered a type of Coloured sequence synesthesia, making this group of synesthesias in general the most common of all)
|
Auditory-visual / chromesthesia
Coloured sequences (time units such as days and months, and other sequences)
Ordinal linguistic personification (letters and/or numbers)**
|
Auditory-gustatory (sound
or music-taste) Auditory-olfactory (sound
or music-smell) Aura (projective personality-colour synesthesia) Duality synesthesia (masculine/feminine, heavy/light, rounded/pointy etc.)* Gustatory-visual (taste-colour and taste-shape) Lexeme-colour and morpheme-colour Lexical-olfactory* Mirror touch** Motion-to-sound synesthesia (observed movement-sound) Motor (or kinetic/kinesthetic) synesthesia Olfactory-visual (smell-colour and smell-shape) Personification of days or months* Phoneme-colour Sexual (and romantic) synesthesia* Stimulus-parity (odd/even)* |
Auditory-motor (involuntary movements in response to sounds)* Grapheme-smell (numbers and letters) Grapheme-sound (numbers and letters) Grapheme-taste (numbers and letters) Grapheme-tactile (numbers and letters) Grapheme-temperature (numbers and letters)* Gustatory-auditory (taste-sound)Kinetics-sound (own body movements) Mathematical concepts-vision synesthesias Perceived emotion-colour-smell-taste-touch (emotions observed in others) Personification of musical sequences Tactile-emotion (texture-emotion)
|
|
More than 50% |
15% – 50% |
1% – 15% |
Less than 1% |
|
Very common |
Common |
Not so common |
Uncommon |
Note: this table does not contain a list of all the existing types of synesthesia, it is just a route for finding information on this website. If you're interested in finding out why we can't make a list of this type, check out this page: Why is it impossible to list all the types of synesthesia that exist?
This page last updated: 6 September 2025
I have spatial sequence synesthesia and none of the other named kinds, but I have noticed a couple of linkages that I have always thought were universal. Namely 1) mood-memory. access to memories is heavily controlled by the mood you are in now (and were at the time of the memory); and 2)smells-memories-emotions.
ReplyDeleteHi Sally! Yes, smells-memories/emotions is something experienced by everyone (although there are probably big differences between people with regard to the vividness and the extent it affects us (there's a page in the Tree with what I found out about this subject, https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/smell-and-memory-taste-and-prousts.html), and I must say I hadn't heard of moods controlling access to memories before - how fascinating! What do you experience? I don't think it would be linked to synesthesia, but I'd like to know more about it!
DeleteHello, I am new to this site, so apologies if this ends up on the wrong thread or something. I'm a little nervous. I think I have some variation of sound-touch synethesia.
DeleteWhen I listen to music, I sometimes feel one of these three:
- something is near me, or I am moving, such as;
• an echoing sound in one song felt like there was something near me, but- blanketing? Spread out in sort of an arms distance in front of my chest, then jumping further away on the second echo.
• one song felt like someone was watching me. Behind me, on a higher elevation, above my left (I think?) Shoulder.
• more than one song has made me feel different variations of something being near the back of my neck.
• the song Gold Finger (by Shirley Bassely) makes all my limbs have high energy (see below) and I feel like I'm falling.
- adrenaline or the feeling of energy in a certain part of my body such as;
• one or two songs made me feel a lot of energy (I'm not sure how to describe what I mean by energy) in my right arm, which sometimes I respond to by waving or tensing my arm to the beat, but the movements are voluntary.
• the feeling after you slip, but before you hit the ground.
• some songs just make me feel excited. Well, maybe not excited, exactly, but the feeling on your first day of work or school. My heart probably beats faster.
• one song made me feel dizzy, and I'm not sure how to phraze this, but it was because of the Z's. The singer sung the word "circles" a lot in the song, but it sounded like it was said with an Z instead of an S. (Not unpleasant dizzy, just a little bit.)
• after a listening to music I feel kind of shaky. You know, like when you get off an amusement park ride.
- the feeling that part of a song "is" something.
• one part of a specific song creates the image (In my head, not my vision) of a hand (which is purple??) Fluctuating between a clear shape and a blurry blob sort of thing.
• one song felt like a field of flowers, then falling off the warf on a clear, blue-skied day.
• when I was younger (and now, still, actually) I used to make little "music videos" in my head that usually were related to people running, dodging, fights, or train chases, and I think it was because of the feeling of movement I got when listening to music. I could always change or stop these "scenes" though.
Sorry, this comment is too long, so it will come in a few parts.
Here are some of the things that made me question if I was a synethesiac.
Delete1. I sometimes find myself skipping to certain parts in songs, or only listening to the start of a song.
2. I really love music. I mean really, REALLY love music. It's always been like a whole different experience to me, and when people describe listening to music, it just seems like they're describing hearing sounds they like. For me, songs seem to broaden to some other sense, some unnamed feeling.
3. Sometimes I get told (or implied) that I am using metaphors when I say a song feels like a field of flowers. I am not! But people don't really seem to get it. Or they'll say; "Yeah, I have a special connection to music too!" I don't want to seem hatful, or exclusive, but it doesn't sound like they feel the same way I do.
4. I'll listen to a song *obsessively*. I can still remember a few years ago when my most listened song was one I listened to almost five times a day. I just loved it sooooooooo much!! I was in another world.
5. People nod their head to keep the beat, right? Well, I do more than that. I nod to the beat of a drum, yes, but I will rock back and forth for a guitar, twitch my fingers for a keyboard or piano, etc. I also don't do it randomly. For example, a certain digital sound = head down and to the right. Therefore, that same sound inverted = head up and to the left. These movements are voluntary, though and can be changed or stopped (especially on the bus. Talk about awkward!)
Here are some of the observations I've made about what these are normally triggered by (with the exception of An Anomaly, which will be mentioned further down.)
• they are only in reactions to songs I like. If a song holds no emotional significance, nothing happens.
• they are triggered by music, not the singer. I've heard a lot of people say or imply they only listen to the lyrics, which I basically tune out. Also, why show so much disinterest in the instruments's parts? People worked hard on that.
• I tend to show disinterest in songs after a certain period of time. I will absolutely love the songs, and then- nothing. Meh. I thought it was because I listened to the songs too much, but no. It doesn't matter if I ignore them. I think it might have something to do with, the longer I know the song, the more toned-down my synethesiac reaction to it is? If I concentrate hard, a whisper of it is still there, but it's just not the same.
• the genre, band, or even album doesn't bear any significance. I'll listen to one song, and then check some other ones by the same band. Nothing. Maybe that's why whenever somebody asks me "what type of music do you like?" My mind just blanks.
DeleteOkay, now for the Anomaly. There's this one band that has about 7 songs (so far) that I like and react to. Its been about a year and they haven't worn off that much. Also, they're triggered by the singer's voice, which, I cannot emphasize enough, does not happen.
I also have a very strange experience listening to one of their songs. At one point the singer sung "the world is spinning to fast" and I literally felt like I was turning. Which is strange, because usually I feel like I'm standing on something that's moving, somewhat like the feeling of sitting in a car. But this time, it felt like it was me directly who was turning (not spinning, it wasn't that fast). The turn, by the way, was a backwards three-quater turn, and it could be anchored on either foot.
That's about it. Some extra information, since I don't know what's important to you:
- I listen to music on noise-dampening headphones (I don't like being disturbed)
- I never just play a playlist, that's just where I store my songs. I prefer to choose which one I want to listen to next.
- I wait about 10 seconds between each song
- listening to songs in the dark seems to cause my reactions to be stronger.
Sadly, I don't have that much music notes and stuff knowledge, so sorry if I'm a little vague.
I love my connection with music, - whatever that connection actually is - it's part of my personality, interesting to research, and also entertaining when I'm on a long, boring road trip.
Once again, sorry if this is on the wrong thread, I'm a little bit confused on where to comment.
If possible, I would be very grateful for some advice on how to explain this to people. Some of my friends have expressed their opinion of me "Imagining it".
Sorry, the two comments before this are mine, and I have indeed ended up on the wrong thread. I guess it's to late now though.
Hi! Interesting comment! I've read it and made some notes and I'll answer you as soon as I can (might take a few days, but I will answer).
DeleteAs to it being on the right or wrong thread, I think the only thing is that the poster at the top of the thread (Sally) might get sent a copy of it to her email address. Otherwise, no problem.
You can leave it where it is, or post again in the box at the end of all the comments below and then delete this version, as you prefer!
Thanks for this chart -I have “common” and “uncommon”. I participated in a study many years ago and heard about different types of synesthesia for the first time. One type I never knew was synesthesia was one’s body becoming the shape of sound, passages of music (some of this can be movement as response to auditory, but it is also feel my body becoming the actual shape of the sound . Another-My “3” is green and-if I hold up three fingers that looks green -same for White “1” one finger”2” two fingers are brown “4” red -4 fingers are red -it goes as far as 5 for fingers.
ReplyDeleteI find what you say to be very interesting! Both those things you mention. Perceiving your body as being the shape of the sound I'd say would fit in somewhere with the proprioception-related aspect of auditory-tactile, and also, as you suggest, with auditory-motor. And seeing your fingers as the colours of your numbers, I don't remember hearing of a case of this before and it's such a good example of how magnitude or numerosity and not just the symbol for the number produce the colour. Looking this up now I can see that there's actually a study on this (Ward/Sagiv), from 2007 (or was that actually the study you took part in?), this one: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6270038_Synaesthesia_for_Finger_Counting_and_Dice_Patterns_A_Case_of_Higher_Synaesthesia
DeleteIn any case I'd like to include both the things you say in my descriptions here on the Tree, if that's OK by you!
I can smell temperature, see sound, and see colors in numbers. the 2 latter ones are listed, but olfactory-temperature is not. I can explain more if you're curious!
ReplyDeleteThat would be interesting to hear about your experiences, yes!
ReplyDeleteI have a few types, but one I never seem to see mentioned anywhere is that, for me, words have textures. Thinking of the right word often leads to comments like ‘no that word is too furry’ or ‘no the word I’m trying to think of is spikier than that’ (much to the confusion of those around me). Sometimes it’s just an association, sometimes I can actually feel the texture as if I’m touching a surface or something.
ReplyDeleteIs there a term for that sort of word-texture synesthesia?
Hi! You’re right, I think in many cases this could definitely be considered a type of synesthesia… but no-one seems to talk about it much, as far as I know there aren’t any studies on it, and it hasn’t been given a name. I’d only really heard it talked about in conjunction with grapheme-colour synesthesia. But if the textures don’t have colour, then it would be different from grapheme-colour. Or with lexical-gustatory, when words not only have a taste but it’s also common for there to be a texture.
DeleteWith synesthesia types where a strong perception of texture is the concurrent, it often appears to be the case that the textures are perceived together with something else: colour, shape, taste (or mouthfeel), or touch. That tends to the case for sound-texture synesthesia, for example, and it seems to be equally true when it’s a concurrent for words, although of course the texture could just occur on its own. In your case, from what you say, you seem to have it either alone or with a tactile sensation. A hypothetical name for it if it comes with real touch sensations would be lexical-tactile synesthesia, or if not you could say word-texture.
I think your question makes an interesting point, and it could be worth making a page for the Tree of this when I have time!
You could look at the pages on sound-texture and musical note texture if you were interested because you might see some kind of a relationship with how you’re perceiving your textures with words.
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/sound-texture-synesthesia.html
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/05/tone-texture-synesthesia-musical-note.html
And looking for some more examples of it, I found this excellent post in Reddit with some very interesting comments, all talking about how they experience word-texture, you might like to read it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Synesthesia/comments/8mvhb8/feeling_words_and_sentences_as_texturesfabrics/
There seem to be a small but strong number of synesthetes who have this, maybe it needs revindicating!
Mine isn't very interesting. The only one I can truly say I experience is the one a lot of people refer to as "ASMR".
ReplyDeleteI first remember feeling it sometime around 4th-6th grade, but for me, while it CAN and often is related to hearing a sound--for me, it happens when I hear what sounds like someone drawing with markers or colored pencils--it still mostly occurs when someone is doing something for me that has to do with art or writing on paper.
That may sound confusing so I'll try to quickly explain via an example or two.
In 6th grade, I clearly remember, if a classmate would ask to borrow my notes, I would get a tingly sensation throughout my body (usually starting in the head) for the entire time they were copying my notes, albeit more like in waves rather than continuously.
A second instance I clearly remember is when one of my friends would be drawing a picture for me (my friends and I did this during class for some reason). Whether or not I could hear the markers they were using didn't matter except perhaps it heightened the feeling a little bit.
That's about it for me. I remember feeling weird about it, but not enough to concern me, although when I finally learned about "ASMR" (and then finally auditory-tactile synesthesia...although the "auditory" part may be a very slight misnomer for my particular...variant) it made me feel less weird to learn others experienced it too.
I have like 11 or 12 of these types lol
ReplyDeleteHello! It seems very questionable and/or unlikely that you have such a high amount. I think that what you're referring to may be the little bit of "synesthesia" we all sort of seem to have, such as how we may think of some things and associate them with others. If you truly have that many types, I'm impressed- and a bit concerned. You should possibly get that checked out.
DeleteMy experience on the other hand tells me it's relatively common to have a lot of types, many synesthetes do. It also depends on whether you count only the strongest ones you're aware of constantly or also those that are weaker. I'd never really counted up my types but if I do, I see have 10 of the ones on this list all the time or strongly, and about another 6 that are weaker or I only get strong experiences with occasionally, which I wouldn't really count, although I do experience them. I've met a lot of people, both in "real life" and online, who have numerous types, like I do. My experience has also shown me that synesthetes on the autism spectrum often have very many types, strongly expressed.
DeleteReally I don't think it's possible for many synesthetes to be able to say exactly "how many types they have". Also it all depends on how you group the types: you find some people counting up many types they consider they have, but they're breaking them down more, so for example they'd count weekdays-colour, months-colour, countries-colour as 3 different types when it probably makes more sense to count them as only one: coloured sequences.
And also, as you say, some people count any vague experience with "sensory crossovers" as having a type of synesthesia when they perhaps aren't talking about the same thing and their experience doesn't fit into the exact description of how it manifests, so that shouldn't be counted as a type. That happens in some general questionnaires about synesthetic experiences, when there are no follow-up tests to see if the person really has those types of synesthesia or not, and can even lead to the mistake of thinking there are a huge percentage of synesthetes in the population, when there aren't!
This is just a few general personal reflections on this discussion, which I thought was interesting. Thank you both for commenting!
I feel very special to belong to the synesthetic club! I take part in research at the University of Sussex too on the condition. I have several types of synesthesia, from the common to the not so common. I'm so glad to have these experiences and live in a world of so much colour.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHello, I am Aman from India. I am working as a Writer and a Director. Currently I am working on a story which is about Synesthesia and Synesthete. I am looking for someone who can help me in research and share his/her experience of being a synesthete and their world view. My aim is to spread awareness and make the people aware about this subject as many of the people haven’t even heard about this yet. So, if anyone is interested then please reach at my mail id imbansalaman2004@gmail.com
Thank you for your work on this website. It is amazing. This is very useful, but at the same time, very confusing for me. ahah Basically, because I see letters, poepl's names, numbers, days of the week, months, idk, school subjects with collors. And I always thought it was grapheme colour, but it happens that the colour of the letter can change depending of if it, for example, an open A or a flat A and so on for the vowels. So, it might also be related with sound. Also, I see gradients of colours if I pay enough attention. So, it is not only one colour per word. In the end, I really do not know what type do I have. I am not sure if I understnad spatial sequence, but at the same time, I can easily see a queue of letters in my head with differente colours, if I focus enough. I am also pretty sure that, romantic/sex type is there, as I found out recently that normal people to not see colours during orgasm. But I do not always see that. Also for food, I am pretty sure that some flavours can show a colour, but that does not work for the generality of them. So, I never really paid enough attention to know. I also have some kind of misophonia because some sounds really push my buttons. But, there is another gradient to that one that is differente from misophonia: some musics really make me feel uncomfortable, like if my tummy gets tense and they make me anxious and I have to turn them off. Would that be synaesthesia as well?
ReplyDeleteFinally, I am not sure if I have the mirror touch type. Or some type related with empathy because I do not feel it always, but for example, I do not like to see those funny videos of people falling because it is as if I could feel their pain. The same for situations I can imagine in my head, like idk, a broken nail. It hurts even if I am just imagining it. That is worse though with emotional distress. I can watch a movie like Anne Frank or Australia and cry like no other person in the room because I get to imagine the suffering of thouse people and it is unbearable to me. It makes me sad for so long. It really hurts. So, idk if this would be synaesthesia or not. I am very confused about myself right now. ahah
Thank you though.
Hi and thank you for appreciating the Tree!
DeleteYes, the colour of letters can be related to their sound, in which case technically that could be phoneme-colour synesthesia. And two types of A would have different colours in that case, if they’re pronounced differently.
They can have gradients of colour too, that’s perfectly possible. Or combinations, or two colours at the same time, or patterns, or textures, or they might be multi-coloured: there are many possibilities.
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/phoneme-colour-synesthesia.html
If you see weekdays, months and school subjects with their own particular colours that don’t correspond to the colours of the letters in them, then that might be coloured sequence synesthesia for those series of concepts and not grapheme-colour/phoneme-colour. The two can coexist though.
https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/02/coloured-sequence-synesthesia.html
As to your queue of letters, if you really have to focus very hard to see them and it’s not at all automatic, then it probably wouldn’t be considered spatial sequence (alphabet form). Although most who have it say they visualise the alphabet with its different colours, so perhaps.
With sexual and romantic synesthesia, I don’t think anyone has colours every single time!
For taste-colour, if you perceive some tastes with colour then you should focus on it and see if you are getting consistent colour perceptions. Sometimes if this type is weak it can be there but it just seems normal or you hardly notice. If the colours just coincide with the colour of the food and it’s only an occasional experience, or if they’re not at all consistent, then it probably wouldn’t be that.
The music that makes you feel uncomfortable, that could be for a variety of reasons, but I don’t think any of them would be synesthesia.
The last thing you describe would be empathy or pain empathy but very unlikely it’s mirror touch.
Where would emotion-movement/shapes fall, I have chromesthesia and grapheme color and just realized I see my stronger emotions as shapes.
ReplyDeleteHi! You would find that on this page:
Deletehttps://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/emotion-colour-and-emotion-shape.html
(Emotion-colour/shape/texture).
I have four types of synesthesia; ticker tape, mirror pain, number personification, and projective personality-color synesthesia. This website/article has been incredibly useful for me to find out that there are other people out there who are experiencing the same thing as me every day. Let me know if you would like to hear more about any of my synesthetic experiences, I would love to share!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found the Tree useful! Yes, tell us some more about your projective personality-colour synesthesia, that would be interesting.
DeleteYeah! So for me the colors appear in my minds eye rather than physically. Orange, purple, and green all are very common colors. Red, yellow, and pink are somewhat rarer but still popular. Gray, blue, and silver are very rare. People who don’t feel well appear as a sort of cloud shape of color around them, and gets darker the worse they feel. People who are afraid appear as a firework frozen mid-explosion, or sort of spiky appearance. People who are angry get very vibrant and sort of stormy appearance.
DeleteI have auditory-visual and auditory-olfactory synesthesia, and this chart made me realize that I may also have "duality synesthesia"? I didn't know this was a thing, but I do associate things like left and right, red and blue, and warm and cold with either a sharp or soft sensation. Does this count?
ReplyDeleteHi! I would say yes, it very likely does, especially if you have other types of synesthesia and are therefore a synesthete. From what you say these are not the only pairs of concepts that are sharp or soft for you, and perhaps if you think about other opposing concepts they'll also fit into either of these two categories. Maybe if somebody only associated, for example, warm and cold with these two perceptions and they weren't a synesthete then you could say it was just a logical association, but the other things you mention and the fact you probably have more makes it sound more synesthetic in nature.
Delete