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Glite Dictionary
pneumograph

pneumograph

9.9
A device that records chest movement while you breathe
  • noun
  • /ˈnjuːməˌɡrɑːf/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pneumógrafo
  • The doctor used a pneumograph to monitor the patient's breathing during the procedure.

Examples

  • The breathing is taken with the pneumograph around the subject's chest.

  • Physiological psychologists of the nineteenth century found ways of measuring emotional states by pulse and, more precisely, by clocks (reaction time), galvanometers, pneumographs, and other instruments involving word association.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Researchers equipped the athlete with a pneumograph to record lung activity while running.

  • The pneumograph displayed a detailed graph of the subject's chest movements as they breathed deeply.

Synonyms

spirometer
vspneumograph
  • Specialized
1 7.0

A machine that measures how much air you breathe in and how fast you breathe out

records chest or lung movement instead of calculating internal volumes
body plethysmograph
vspneumograph
  • Specialized
1 9.1

A medical machine with a chamber that surrounds the body to measure lung size and how well you breathe

records external chest or lung movement rather than measuring inside volumes
spirograph
vspneumograph
  • Archaic
8.3

A device that records how deep and how fast someone breathes

records chest or lung movement generally rather than specific depth or rate
respirometer
vspneumograph
  • Specialized
7.4

A machine that measures breathing in people, animals or plants

records physical chest or lung movements rather than broader respiration metrics

Surface Forms

pneumograph singular
pneumographs plural

Morphology

pneumograph = graph (semi-transparent) = pneumo + graph

The word is formed from the classical element 'pneumo-' and 'graph', but its specialized medical meaning is not fully predictable for an average learner.

Etymology

The word pneumograph comes from Greek roots: pneumo- meaning 'breath' and -graph meaning 'to write', the same -graph you see in photograph. So a pneumograph is a device that 'writes' the breath. It records how the chest and lungs move when you breathe.