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

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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The measles virus infects the upper respiratory tract where it uses the trachea, or windpipe, as a trampoline to launch and spread through droplets dispersed when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

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Related Words

• esophagus 
• larynx