respiration

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a single complete act of breathing in and out

   thirty respirations per minute

2. 2
   noun

   The process of inhaling and exhaling.

   In the dead state all is apparently without motion. No agent within indicates design, intelligence, or foresight: there is no respiration; […]

3. 3
   noun

   An act of breathing: a single breath.

   Gowan snored, each respiration choking to a huddle fall, as though he would never breathe again.

4. 4
   noun

   The process by which cells obtain chemical energy by the consumption of oxygen and the release of carbon dioxide.

   Near-synonym: metabolism

5. 5
   noun

   the metabolic processes whereby certain organisms obtain energy from organic molecules

6. 6
   noun

   the bodily process of inhalation and exhalation

7. 7
   noun

   Any similar process in an organism that lacks lungs that exchanges gases with its environment.

Etymology

From Middle English respiracioun, borrowed from Latin respīrātiō, respīrātiōnem.