ventilator

American  

[ven-tl-ay-ter] / ˈvɛn tlˌeɪ tər /

noun

• ventilators
  plural

1. a person or thing that ventilates.

2. a contrivance or opening for replacing foul or stagnant air with fresh air.

3. Medicine/Medical. an apparatus to produce artificial respiration, moving air into and out of a patient’s lungs.

   The patient presented with signs of respiratory failure and was placed immediately on a ventilator.

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ventilator British  

/ ˈvɛntɪˌleɪtə /

noun

1. an opening or device, such as a fan, used to ventilate a room, building, etc

2. med a machine that maintains a flow of air into and out of the lungs of a patient who is unable to breathe normally

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ventilators
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ventilator

First recorded in 1735–45; ventilat(e) + -or ²

Compare meaning

How does ventilator compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• ventilator vs. respirator

Explanation

A ventilator is a machine that brings in good air that's safe to breathe and keeps bad air out. A kitchen ventilator uses fans and filters to direct greasy stove exhaust outside. There are architectural ventilators, for keeping the air inside buildings clean, and also medical ventilators, which work to keep breathable air moving in and out of a patient's lungs. This kind of ventilator is only used when someone is unable to breathe effectively on their own. In both cases, ventilators are all about air. The word comes from the Latin root ventulus, "a breeze."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ventilator ventilators

She was taken to the hospital, where she was intubated and placed on a ventilator.

From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2026

"She's still in the hospital on a ventilator, critically ill," Pike's attorney Stephen Ferrell said on CNN.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

Pike remained alive and was placed on a ventilator after receiving two doses of pentobarbital during the failed execution attempt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

She was unconscious and on a ventilator at the time of writing.

From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026

Eavesdropping's wrong, I know, but it was hardly my fault if Mum and Aunt Alice chose to natter right outside the ventilator flaps, was it?

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

It's a mammoth task: The vast majority of the city's 20,500 licensed food carts -- selling pretzels, peanuts and ice cream -- rely on generators to power stoves, freezers and ventilators.

From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026

Within weeks, the GM-Ventec partnership began shipping thousands of ventilators to hospitals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

Does she wonder how the people hospitalized on ventilators or who lost loved ones feel?

From Salon ● May 11, 2026

The health board confirmed that the ventilators were in a storage container and could not be used, although said that the ophthalmic equipment requested is being considered for clinical use.

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026

It talked or sometimes yelled through its ventilators, too.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut

Related Words

• fireplace
• flue
• furnace
• hearth
• pipe
• stack
• vent