expectoration
noun
expectoration is a noun meaning “The action of expectorating, of ejecting phlegm or mucus from the throat or lungs by coughing, hawking, or spitting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled E-X-P-E-C-T-O-R-A-T-I-O-N, and it appears about once in every 44 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of expectoration is expectorations.
What does expectoration mean?
noun
- 1
The action of expectorating, of ejecting phlegm or mucus from the throat or lungs by coughing, hawking, or spitting.
- 2
That which is expectorated, as phlegm or mucus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce expectoration?
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-expectoration.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of expectoration
- expectorations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is expectoration?
Expectoration appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Expectoration in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | expectoration |
| German | Expektoration , Auswurf |
| Portuguese | expectoração |
| Spanish | expectoración |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.