Inhalation

How to spell inhalation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inhalation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inhalation mean?

1. nounThe act of breathing in air, smoke, vapour, or another substance.

Inhalation in a sentence

• The doctor warned that inhalation of the fumes could damage the lungs.

• Deep inhalation of the cold morning air made her cough.

Where does inhalation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb inhalare, meaning 'to breathe in' or 'to breathe upon', formed from the prefix in- ('in, into') and the verb halare ('to breathe'). The noun form inhalatio described the act of drawing breath inward, and it carried connotations of medical and vaporous treatment from early on. English adopted the term in the early 1600s, largely in scientific and medical writing, where it described breathing in air, smoke, or remedial vapours. Its close relative 'exhale' shares the same halare root with the prefix ex- ('out'), so the pair neatly mirrors the in-and-out of breathing. A useful spelling reminder is that the middle holds 'hal', the breathing root, just as it does in 'inhale', so the word is simply inhale with the -ation ending attached.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• hal (from Latin halare: to breathe)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)