asphyxia
Meanings
Plural: asphyxias
Noun
- a condition in which insufficient or no oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged on a ventilatory basis; caused by choking or drowning or electric shock or poison gas
- Loss of consciousness due to the interruption of breathing and consequent anoxia.
- Loss of consciousness due to the body's inability to deliver oxygen to its tissues, either by the breathing of air lacking oxygen or by the inability of the blood to carry oxygen.
- A condition in which an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body leads to loss of consciousness or death. Replaced in the mid-20th century by the more specific terms anoxia, hypoxia, hypoxemia and hypercapnia.
Origin / Etymology
Learned borrowing from New Latin asphyxia, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀσφυξία (asphuxía, “stopping of the pulse”).
Scrabble Score: 23
asphyxia is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordasphyxia is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
asphyxia is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary
Words With Friends Score: 22
asphyxia is a valid Words With Friends word