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Glite Dictionary
parietal pleura

parietal pleura

7.7
A thin layer of tissue that lines the inside of the chest and covers the muscle under the lungs
  • noun
  • /pəˈraɪətl ˈplʊərə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pleura parietal
  • Inflammation of the parietal pleura can cause chest pain and difficulty in breathing.

Examples

  • Understanding how the parietal pleura interacts with the diaphragm is important for respiratory health.

  • This finding confirms the displacement of the parietal pleura within the mediastinum.

    Academic text (2002)

  • The doctor explained that the parietal pleura protects the inner chest wall during surgeries.

Surface Forms

parietal pleura singular
parietal pleurae plural

Morphology

parietal + pleura

The meaning is directly compositional: 'parietal' denotes a lining or wall and 'pleura' denotes the membrane around the lungs, so together they refer to the pleural layer that lines the chest wall and diaphragm. This adjective+noun anatomical formation is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Parietal pleura comes from old words meaning 'wall' and 'side'. The word parietal means 'wall' and pleura means 'side' or 'rib', so the phrase literally names the thin membrane that lies along the inner chest wall and covers the diaphragm.