# dyspnea

> English word · Noun · IPA /dɪspˈniː.ə/ · frequency rank #78,559

## Definitions
1. Difficult or laboured breathing.

## Etymology
Variant spelling of dyspnoea, a learned borrowing from Latin dyspnoea (“difficulty breathing”), from Ancient Greek δῠ́σπνοιᾰ (dŭ́spnoiă, “difficulty breathing, shortness of breath”), from δῠ́σπνοος (dŭ́spnoos, “short of breath, breathing with difficulty”, adjective) (also δῠ́σπνους (dŭ́spnous) by contraction) + -ῐᾰ (-ĭă, suffix forming abstract nouns). Δῠ́σπνοος (Dŭ́spnoos) is derived from δῠσ- (dŭs-, prefix meaning ‘bad; difficult, hard; unfortunate’) + πνέω (pnéō, “to blow; to breathe”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; to pant”)) + -ος (-os, suffix forming adjectives). The English word is analysable as dys- (prefix meaning ‘abnormal; difficult; disease’) + -pnea (suffix meaning ‘breathing, respiration’).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/dyspnea