Meaning & use
CPR
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Meaning
abbreviationuncountablemedical
An emergency procedure that combines chest pushes and, if trained, breaths to keep blood flowing to someone whose heart has stopped; short for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Grammar: Uncountable: perform CPR, learn CPR, not a CPR.
Patterns
- perform CPR on someone
- learn CPR
- give someone CPR
A passer-by started CPR until the ambulance arrived.
All lifeguards must be certified in CPR.
The nurse showed us how to do CPR on a practice dummy.
Common combinations
- perform CPR
- He performed CPR on the man until paramedics took over.
- give CPR
- Do you know how to give CPR to a child?
- CPR class
- I signed up for a CPR class at the community center.
- CPR training
- Teachers receive CPR training every two years.
- CPR certification
- Her CPR certification expires next month.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cardiopulmonary resuscitation
- This is the full formal term for CPR and is used in medical writing.
- resuscitation
- This is a broader word for bringing someone back to life by any method, not just chest compressions.
- mouth-to-mouth
- Mouth-to-mouth refers only to the breathing part of CPR, not the chest compressions.
Word family
- resuscitate verb
- to bring someone back to consciousness or life
- resuscitation noun
- the act of reviving someone
- cardiac adjective
- relating to the heart
- defibrillator noun
- a device that gives an electric shock to restart a heart
Commonly confused: CPR or first aid?
CPR vs first aid
First aid is the wider set of emergency treatments; CPR is one particular technique within it.
Practice
When the swimmer stopped breathing, the lifeguard began ___ immediately.
Choose one answer.
CPR is the emergency treatment for a stopped heart. The other abbreviations are unrelated: therapy, computer part, and an office note.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “CPR”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.