Meaning & use
exhale
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To breathe air out of your lungs.
Grammar: Can be used alone or with an object: She exhaled slowly. / She exhaled a long breath.
Patterns
- exhale slowly
- exhale through your mouth
- exhale something
The doctor told him to inhale deeply and then exhale slowly.
She exhaled a cloud of steam into the cold morning air.
Close your eyes, breathe in for four counts, and exhale for six.
verbtransitivetechnical
To give off a gas, vapor, or smell into the air.
Grammar: Takes an object naming the substance: The plant exhales oxygen.
Patterns
- exhale something
- exhale a gas
Plants take in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen during the day.
The old pipes exhaled a faint smell of gas.
Volcanoes exhale sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere.
Word forms
| third person singular | exhales |
|---|---|
| past tense | exhaled |
| past participle | exhaled |
| -ing form | exhaling |
Common combinations
- exhale slowly
- Exhale slowly through your nose and relax your shoulders.
- exhale deeply
- She exhaled deeply and felt the tension leave her body.
- exhale through the mouth
- In yoga class we inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
- breathe in and exhale
- Breathe in for three seconds, then exhale for three seconds.
- exhale carbon dioxide
- When you exhale carbon dioxide, your body gets rid of waste gas.
Synonyms and how they differ
- breathe out
- The everyday phrase; exhale is more formal and common in medical or exercise instructions.
- expire
- A technical or literary word for breathing out; in everyday English expire usually means 'come to an end'.
Opposites
Word family
- exhalation noun
- The act of breathing out, or the air breathed out.
- inhalation noun
- The opposite process: breathing air in.
Commonly confused: exhale or inhale? exhale or exalt?
exhale vs inhale
Inhale means to breathe air in; exhale means to breathe it out. They are direct opposites.
exhale vs exalt
Exalt means to praise highly. It sounds similar to exhale but has nothing to do with breathing.
Practice
The nurse said, "Breathe in through your nose, then ___ through your mouth."
Choose one answer.
Exhale means breathe out, which fits the second half of the breathing instruction. Inhale means breathe in, so it repeats the first step; exalt means praise; expire is too technical and usually means 'come to an end'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “exhale”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.