sputum

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

After 28 days, respiratory symptoms of cough, wheeze, breathlessness and sputum were found to be better with benralizumab.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2024

She said she was concerned because Tammy Daybell was just 49 and also had quite a bit of foamy pink sputum coming from her mouth.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2023

Miss Love looked at the sputum he spat into a rag.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

Hallier found in the blood and sputa numbers of free cocci, which fructified upon various substrata, but was invariably the same fungus—mucor mucedo verus, Fres.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

All excreta, and more especially the sputa or discharges from the mouth or nose, are to be treated as dangerous.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

I gave over the case at this time, and some weeks afterwards I learnt with surprise that the patient was well and growing fat, and that the inoculation of the sputa had produced no effects.

From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz

There is no report of the full development found in the urine, sputa, and sweat.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 by Various

I had the curiosity, during my attendance on this patient, to separate the mucus from the carbon, by the simple process of diluting the sputa with water, and thereafter separating and drying the precipitated carbon.

From An Investigation into the Nature of Black Phthisis or Ulceration Induced by Carbonaceous Accumulation in the Lungs of Coal Miners by Archibald Makellar