ventilation
noun
Simple meaning
Letting fresh air into a room or building.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vehntuhlayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
vɛntəˈleɪʃən
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
A mechanical system in a building that provides fresh air
“She was continually adjusting the ventilation.”
The mechanical system used to circulate and replace air.
The act of supplying fresh air and getting rid of foul air
The replacement of stale or noxious air with fresh.
The bodily process of inhalation and exhalation; the process of taking in oxygen from inhaled air and releasing carbon dioxide by exhalation
The bodily process of breathing; the inhalation of air to provide oxygen, and the exhalation of spent air to remove carbon dioxide.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A mechanical system in a building that provides fresh air
Used this way, ventilation is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is an engineering use: it is a working term used for accuracy on the job.
“She was continually adjusting the ventilation.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
- Science
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use ventilation
- “She was continually adjusting the ventilation.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A mechanical system in a building that provides fresh air.
A shaft in a building.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- ventilatedadjective
- airwaynoun
- breathingnoun
- plumbingnoun
- lungnoun
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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.