pneumothorax
noun
Simple meaning
Abnormal presence of air in the pleural cavity resulting in the collapse of the lung.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
noomahthawraksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
nuˈmɑˈθɔɹæks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
medicine
Abnormal presence of air in the pleural cavity resulting in the collapse of the lung; may be spontaneous (due to injury to the chest) or induced (as a treatment for tuberculosis)
medicine
Presence of air inside the pleural cavity, usually caused by injury either to the lung or the chest wall.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Formality
- Technical
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.