sputum
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That’s sputum, the mucus found deep in the airways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
"It's meant to break up sputum, but kids under two can't spit it out, so the mucus can be aspirated into the lungs, causing pneumonia - yet it is still prescribed."
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025
The team were able to achieve this by combining peptides with a culture medium that is known to recreate natural sputum and which can be easily infected.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023
They’ve also helped health clinics in Africa diagnose people with tuberculosis, detecting the bacteria in the sputum samples of 25,000 patients.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 18, 2023
The back of the throat and the lining of the windpipe may also slough off, and the dead tissue slides down the windpipe into the lungs or is coughed up with sputum.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
As soon as the stomach and bowels became empty there was comfort all along the line, and the cough was so diminished, that less than an ounce of sputa was raised in twenty-four hours.
From The No Breakfast Plan and the Fasting-Cure by Edward Hooker Dewey
About 7th January, 1869.—Cannot walk: Pneumonia of right lung, and I cough all day and all night: sputa rust of iron and bloody: distressing weakness.
Moving is always good in fever; now I had a pain in the chest, and rust of iron sputa: my lungs, my strongest part, were thus affected.
Dr. Meir Witchell holds that the infection character of laughter is due to the instantaneous fermentation of sputa diffused in a spray.
From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
I know that sputa is spittle: but what is tilica?
From A Dialogue Concerning Oratory, Or The Causes Of Corrupt Eloquence The Works Of Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 8 (of 8); With An Essay On His Life And Genius, Notes, Supplements by Cornelius Tacitus
