windpipe

[wind-pahyp]

noun

1. the trachea of an air-breathing vertebrate.

windpipe

/ ˈwɪndˌpaɪp /

noun

1. a nontechnical name for trachea

Word History and Origins

Origin of windpipe¹

First recorded in 1520–30; wind ¹ + pipe ¹

Example Sentences

The stress starts even before the first cut, with intubation - the insertion of a breathing tube into the windpipe.

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At two months old, he had his first major surgery, a tracheostomy - a hole in his windpipe to give him an alternative airway for breathing.

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Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse.

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“They cannot operate and cut out the marble in my chest that is laying on my windpipe, and eventually would suffocate me to death,” she said.

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The larynx functions like an antechamber to the windpipe, or trachea, with a flap of tissue called the epiglottis keeping food and drink from falling down the windpipe.

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Related Words

• esophagus 
• larynx