Sputum

Quick meaning: Sputum is a noun meaning (medicine, pulmonology) Matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, composed of saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus.

Meaning

(medicine, pulmonology) Matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, composed of saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus.

Example Sentences

In the early 1890s the work in the laboratory consisted of postmortems, urinalyses, and examination of sputums.

At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the boy’s sputum sat for a month, waiting for its turn in a slow process of antibody-matching analysis.

Word Forms

• sputums
• sputa

Synonyms for sputum

Depending on context, synonyms include phlegm.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include phlegm, saliva, spit, expectorated, spittle, expectoration.

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