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inhalation

UK/ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/US/ˌɪnhəˈleɪʃən/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,760 of 15,258neutralformal · an editor’s judgement

Inhalation is the drawing of air, or of something else, into the lungs. The breath in.

It is the formal partner of exhalation and belongs to medicine and to safety warnings, where smoke inhalation is a specific and often fatal injury, and inhalation of fumes is what a label warns against. There is a treatment sense, since a steam inhalation is an old remedy for a blocked nose. The verb is inhale, which everyday English uses far more than the noun.

LadyofHats · Public domain

Definitions of inhalation

  1. 1nouninhalationThe act of breathing something into the lungs.C1

    “He was treated for smoke inhalation.”

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂enh₁-

  2. Latin

    inhalare — to breathe on (breathe in)

  3. English

    inhale

  4. English, today

    inhalation

Built from

  • in · Latin — in, into, on
  • halare · Latin — to breathe

From inhale + -ation. inhale comes from Latin inhalare (“to breathe on (breathe in)”), from in (“in, into, on”) + halare (“to breathe”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 14 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

inhalation in the wild

  • The inhalation form presents with fever, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

    Anthrax

  • Contact includes inhalation, eating, or through an area of broken skin.

    Anthrax

  • Smoke inhalation can occur from fires of various sources such as residential, vehicle, and wildfires.

    Smoke inhalation

  • Morbidity and mortality rates in fire victims with burns are increased in those with smoke inhalation injury.

    Smoke inhalation

  • When the required number of expulsions, say ten for a round, is finished, the final expulsion is followed by a deepest possible inhalation.

    Bhastrika

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the halare family

inhaleinhalation

inhalation — used about once every 5,163 pages · #9,760 · point at the bar for the others

  • smoke inhalation