sputum

That’s sputum, the mucus found deep in the airways.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

"It's meant to break up sputum, but kids under two can't spit it out, so the mucus can be aspirated into the lungs, causing pneumonia - yet it is still prescribed."

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2025

The living material incorporates multiple microbial communities and key nutritional and chemical factors that promote bacterial growth and exhibit physical properties mimicking those of biofilms from CF sputum.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023

She said she was concerned because Tammy Daybell was just 49 and also had quite a bit of foamy pink sputum coming from her mouth.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2023

The back of the throat and the lining of the windpipe may also slough off, and the dead tissue slides down the windpipe into the lungs or is coughed up with sputum.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

Examination of the sputa showed distinctly the presence of Koch's bacilli.

From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz

Fourteen years anterior to the researches of Koch, Hering, Swan and Biegler availed themselves, as a homœopathic remedy, of the maceration of tuberculous lungs, and of the sputa of tuberculous subjects.

From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz

Expectoration is often absent in these cases; where it exists the sputa are either mucous or muco-purulent.

From A System of Practical Medicine by American Authors, Vol. I Volume 1: Pathology and General Diseases by Various

This appearance of blood in their sputa was the cause of a great anxiety to them and made them hurry over to my office.

From New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers by Edward Pollock Anshutz

Dr. Meir Witchell holds that the infection character of laughter is due to the instantaneous fermentation of sputa diffused in a spray.

From The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce