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Medicine vocabulary · History Taking and Examination

Wheeze

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/wiːz/nounCommon term

In medicine, wheeze means: A high-pitched whistling sound made when air moves through narrowed airways, usually heard when breathing out.

In Turkish: hışıltı, wheezing

How it is used

Typical of asthma and COPD, but also heard in anaphylaxis and heart failure. Doctors write 'widespread expiratory wheeze' in examination notes. Patients say 'wheezy' or 'my chest is whistling'. It is also a verb: 'he's wheezing'.

Example sentences

  1. On auscultation there is a widespread expiratory wheeze.

  2. His wheeze improved after the nebuliser.

Common collocations

  • expiratory wheeze
  • widespread wheeze
  • audible wheeze
  • polyphonic wheeze
  • asthmaA long-term lung condition in which the airways become narrow and inflamed, causing wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath that can come and go.
  • COPDShort for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a long-term lung disease, usually caused by smoking, in which damaged airways make it hard to breathe out.
  • auscultateTo listen to sounds inside the body, especially the heart, lungs and bowel, with a stethoscope.
  • shortness of breathA feeling that you cannot get enough air or have to work hard to breathe; the medical word is dyspnea (UK: dyspnoea).
  • inhalerA small hand-held device that delivers medicine as a spray or powder directly into the lungs when the patient breathes in.

More terms: History Taking and Examination

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.