sputum
Americannoun
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sputa
plural
noun
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a mass of salivary matter ejected from the mouth
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saliva ejected from the mouth mixed with mucus or pus exuded from the respiratory passages, as in bronchitis or bronchiectasis
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sputum
1685–95; < Latin spūtum, noun use of neuter of spūtus, past participle of spuere to spit, equivalent to spū- variant stem + -tus past participle suffix
Compare meaning
How does sputum compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Sputum is the gross stuff that you cough up when you're sick and congested. Sputum is your saliva mixed with mucus from your lungs. Examining a patient's sputum is one way for a doctor to tell if she might have an infection, rather than just a cold. A yellow or greenish color to the sputum someone coughs up is a sign of infection, while clear sputum usually means all is well. The word sputum shares a root with spew, the Latin verb spuere, "to spit."
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
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
A sign at the entrance to the clinic announces the other major health problem: "sputum sampling" for tuberculosis or TB.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 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
Said tell him Mr. Blakeslee was having a bad chill and he’d coughed up some dark, rusty sputum.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
This appearance of blood in their sputa was the cause of a great anxiety to them and made them hurry over to my office.
From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Anshutz, Edward Pollock
Koch has found in examining the sputa from numerous cases of phthisis that the bacilli were present in one-half the number, and that they were absent from the sputa of individuals who were not phthisical.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
Tappeiner55 succeeded in producing pulmonary tuberculosis, with or without general tuberculosis, in dogs, by compelling them to breathe air in which were contained minute particles of sputa from tuberculous pulmonary cavities.
From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various
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
When it was renewed, blood again appeared in the sputa.
From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Pyle, Walter L. (Walter Lytle)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
