Atelectasis

//æ.tɪˈlɛk.tə.sɪs// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The collapse of a part of or the whole lung caused by inner factors rather than a pneumothorax. countable, uncountable

    "Atelectasis means a non-expansion of the lungs."

  2. 2
    collapse of an expanded lung (especially in infants); also failure of pulmonary alveoli to expand at birth wordnet

Example

More examples

"Atelectasis means a non-expansion of the lungs."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀτελής (atelḗs, “incomplete”) + ἔκτασις (éktasis, “extension”), from ἐκτείνω (ekteínō, “to extend”). By surface analysis, atel- + ectasis.

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