Meaning & use
lung
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Meanings
nouncountable
One of the two organs in the chest that fill with air and let you breathe.
Grammar: Countable; usually plural when talking about both: the lungs. Use a/an or the with one: a lung, the left lung.
Patterns
- the lungs
- a lung
- lung + noun (lung cancer, lung capacity)
Smoking damages the lungs and makes breathing harder.
The doctor listened to my lungs with a stethoscope.
He took a deep breath and felt his lungs expand.
nouncountablebiology
A similar organ in animals that breathe air, such as reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Grammar: Countable; often used in biology when comparing how different animals breathe.
Patterns
- the lungs of + animal
- animal lungs
Birds have lungs plus air sacs that help them get enough oxygen.
Fish do not have lungs; they use gills to take oxygen from water.
In biology class we compared the lungs of a frog and a human.
Word forms
| plural | lungs |
|---|
Common combinations
- lung cancer
- Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide.
- lung capacity
- Swimmers often have a large lung capacity.
- collapsed lung
- He was taken to hospital with a collapsed lung.
- lung disease
- She was diagnosed with a serious lung disease.
- deep breath / fill your lungs
- Take a deep breath and fill your lungs with fresh air.
Word family
- pulmonary adjective
- Medical term meaning 'relating to the lungs', as in pulmonary disease.
Commonly confused: lung or lunch?
lung vs lunch
Lunch is the meal you eat in the middle of the day; lung is the body organ. They sound similar but have different vowels and meanings.
Practice
The doctor said that smoking can seriously damage your ______.
Choose one answer.
We usually use the plural 'lungs' because both organs are affected. 'Lung' is singular and would need 'a' or 'the'; 'lunch' is a meal, not an organ.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “lung”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.