stethoscope
Americannoun
noun
-
med an instrument for listening to the sounds made within the body, typically consisting of a hollow disc that transmits the sound through hollow tubes to earpieces
-
Also called: obstetric stethoscope. a narrow cylinder expanded at both ends to recieve and transmit fetal sounds
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of stethoscope
Explanation
A stethoscope is the device that doctors and nurses use to listen to your heartbeat. Many medical workers walk around wearing stethoscopes around their necks. Made up of the Greek stethos, "chest or breast," and the suffix -scope, "an instrument for seeing," the meaning of stethoscope is fairly straightforward. It's an instrument that's used to "see," or more accurately, to hear, inside your chest. During a medical exam, your doctor will listen to your heartbeat and the sound your lungs make as you breathe deeply. Veterinarians use stethoscopes too, for listening to their animal patients' hearts and lungs.
Vocabulary lists containing stethoscope
Power Suffix: -scope
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Ghost
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National Nurses Week: Tasks and Equipment
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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.
He asked them to bring their “tools” — broom, stethoscope, an oxygen tank—and posed them against a lightly wrinkled cloth backdrop with natural light.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
But Meals put his stethoscope to the heartbeat of Los Angeles and found a thousand things to cheer.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2025
The original stethoscope, invented in 1816, allows doctors to listen to the internal sounds of a patient's body.
From BBC • Aug. 30, 2025
But the impact extended well beyond the stethoscope itself.
From Salon • Mar. 29, 2025
Dr. Hamid is there, a stethoscope pressed to Stella’s chest as she listens to her lungs.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
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.
