oximeter
ox·i·met·er/ɑkˈsɪmətɚ/noun
oximeter is a noun meaning “A device that measures the quantity of oxygen in something, particularly air in the atmosphere” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled O-X-I-M-E-T-E-R and has 4 syllables (ox·i·met·er), and it appears about once in every 17 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of oximeter is oximeters.
What does oximeter mean?
noun
- 1
A device that measures the quantity of oxygen in something, particularly air in the atmosphere.
- 2
A device that measures the oxygen saturation of arterial blood.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce oximeter?
- UK /ɒkˈsɪmɪtə/
- US /ɑkˈsɪmətɚ/
- US [-ɾɚ]
Oximeter has 4 syllables, split ox·i·met·er in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-oximeter.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of oximeter
- oximeters plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is oximeter?
Oximeter appears about once in every 17 million words in written English, the 122,704th 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).
Oximeter in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense device that measures the oxygen saturation of arterial blood:
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.
Where does oximeter come from?
From oxi- (variant of oxy-) + -meter. The word was first applied in sense 2 (“a device that measures the oxygen saturation of arterial blood”) by American physiologist Glenn Allan Millikan (1906–1947).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).