Meaning & use
stethoscope
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Meaning
nouncountablemedical
A medical instrument with tubes and a chest piece that lets a clinician hear sounds inside the body, especially the heart and lungs.
Grammar: Countable and often used with an or the: borrow a stethoscope, place the stethoscope on the chest.
Patterns
- wear a stethoscope
- listen with a stethoscope
- place a stethoscope on
The doctor warmed the stethoscope before listening to the child's chest.
She keeps a stethoscope in her bag during home visits.
Through the stethoscope, the nurse heard a soft wheeze.
Word forms
| plural | stethoscopes |
|---|
Common combinations
- wear a stethoscope
- A stethoscope around the neck identifies many clinicians at a glance.
- listen through a stethoscope
- He listened through a stethoscope for any irregular heartbeat.
- place the stethoscope
- Place the stethoscope over the left side of the chest.
Synonyms and how they differ
- acoustic microscope
- This is not a synonym in normal use; ordinary English simply uses stethoscope, not a different everyday instrument.
Word family
- stethoscopic adjective
- Relating to examination with a stethoscope.
Commonly confused: stethoscope or microscope?
stethoscope vs microscope
A microscope magnifies tiny objects; a stethoscope carries body sounds to the ear.
Practice
What is the main use of a stethoscope?
Choose one answer.
A stethoscope transmits internal sounds such as heartbeats and breathing to the listener's ears. It may be used during blood-pressure checks, but it does not measure pressure by itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stethoscope”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.