What does "apnea" mean?

The cessation of breathing, most often in reference to transient instances thereof during sleep.

What is a synonym for "apnea"?

Common synonyms include: abscess, ague, anemia, anoxia, asphyxia, asphyxia.

//ˈæp.ni.ə// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The cessation of breathing, most often in reference to transient instances thereof during sleep. countable, uncountable
2
transient cessation of respiration wordnet

"Since I've been on this diet, my weight is down, my cholesterol is down and my sleep apnea has completely disappeared."

From a- + -pnea, from the New Latin apnoea, from the Ancient Greek ἄπνοια (ápnoia), formed from ἀ- (a-, “absence of”) + πνοή (pnoḗ, “breathing”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.