sputum

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"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 team were able to achieve this by combining peptides with a culture medium that is known to recreate natural sputum and which can be easily infected.

From Science Daily • Nov. 21, 2023

They’ve also helped health clinics in Africa diagnose people with tuberculosis, detecting the bacteria in the sputum samples of 25,000 patients.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 18, 2023

But were these tree bubbles — or tree sputum, as I came to call them — actually insect eggs?

From Washington Post • Feb. 20, 2023

He tells me how TB is such a deceptive disease; it doesn’t always reveal itself by a sputum culture, as it did for the father.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French