auscultation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   medical examination by listening to sounds within the body, usually with a stethoscope

   Auscultation revealed an irregular sound in the patient's lungs.

2. 2
   noun

   rare: attentive listening or examination by ear

   The theorist relied on auscultation rather than mathematical analysis of the notes.

From Latin auscultatio, 'a listening,' from auscultare, 'listen attentively.' The medical sense became prominent after the development of diagnostic listening techniques in the nineteenth century.

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