Respiratory

How to spell respiratory

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce respiratory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does respiratory mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to breathing or to the organs involved in breathing.

Respiratory in a sentence

• The patient was admitted with a serious respiratory infection.

• Smoke from the fire caused several respiratory problems among nearby residents.

Where does respiratory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb respirare, which meant 'to breathe again' or 'to breathe out and in', built from the prefix re-, carrying a sense of 'back' or 'again', and the verb spirare, meaning simply 'to breathe'. That same spirare root breathes life into a whole family of English words, including 'inspire' (to breathe in), 'expire' (to breathe out, and later to die), 'spirit', and 'perspire'. From respirare Latin formed the adjective respiratorius, describing anything that serves for breathing, and English adopted the word as 'respiratory' in the 1600s as medicine and anatomy began describing the lungs and airways with precision. The spelling keeps the visible spir core that links it to breath, so remembering 'spir' as the breathing piece helps anchor the middle of the word. The frequent trap is the unstressed vowels around that core, which blur into a schwa in speech and tempt writers to drop or swap letters.

How the word is built

• re- (again/back)
• spir (breathe, from Latin spirare)
• -atory (relating to/serving for)