respiratory

UK/ɹɪˈspɪ.ɹət.ə.ɹi/US/ˈɹɛs.pəɹ.əˌtɔɹ.i/

adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,043 of 15,258leans written

Respiratory means to do with breathing. A respiratory infection, respiratory failure, the respiratory system.

Respiratory infections are the commonest illnesses there are, and the great majority are viral and need no antibiotic. Respiratory failure is the technical term for the lungs no longer doing their job.

Definitions of respiratory

1adjectiverespiratoryTo do with breathing.B2
“Smoking causes many respiratory diseases, such as bronchitis.”

respiratory is a quality.

Where it comes from

New Latin respiratorius comes from respirare, to breathe again, from re plus spirare, to breathe.

New Latin
respīrātōrius
English, today
respiratory

New Latin respīrātōrius, equal to respire + -atory.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

respiratory in the wild

The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans.
Lung
The tissue of the lungs can be affected by several respiratory diseases including pneumonia and lung cancer.
Lung
Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels.
Respiratory failure
An upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) is an illness caused by an acute infection, which involves the upper respiratory tract, including the nose, sinuses, pharynx, larynx or trachea.
Upper respiratory tract infection
Diagnosis is by rRT-PCR testing of blood and respiratory samples.
MERS

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.

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