What does expectorated mean?
"Expectorated" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "expectorate," meaning to cough or spit out phlegm, mucus, or other matter from the throat, mouth, or lungs. In ordinary usage it describes the act of spitting, often with an air of formality or clinical detachment that makes the everyday act sound more technical: a character in a novel might have "expectorated into the dust." In medicine it carries a precise meaning — the ejection of sputum or other material from the respiratory passages, as when a patient expectorates a specimen for laboratory testing. The word derives from Latin, combining ex- ("out") with pectus, pector- ("chest"), so its literal sense is "to drive out from the chest." Because it is largely confined to formal, literary, or clinical contexts, speakers rarely use it in casual conversation, preferring simpler alternatives like "coughed up" or "spat." Its Latinate pedigree and vivid literal meaning nonetheless make it a memorable addition to descriptive writing.
verbPast tense and past participle of "expectorate": to cough or spit out phlegm, mucus, or other matter from the throat or lungs; in formal medical use, to eject matter from the respiratory passages.
- To cough or spit out phlegm, mucus, or saliva from the mouth or throat.
- (Medical) To eject matter, such as sputum, from the lungs or bronchial passages.
"The patient expectorated a sample of sputum for the laboratory to analyse."
"He turned aside and expectorated noisily into the gutter."
"The patient expectorated a specimen that the physician sent for bacterial culture."
It sounds like something you'd do to a suspect in an interrogation room, but it just means you hacked up some phlegm — the word literally traces back to the Latin for 'out of the chest.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of expectorated
"Expectorated" comes from the Latin verb expectorare, formed from ex- ("out of") and pectus, pectoris ("chest, breast"), so its root meaning is "to drive out from the chest." English adopted the verb in the early modern period, around the seventeenth century, initially in the medical sense of clearing matter from the lungs. It shares this Latin chest-root with words such as "pectoral" (relating to the chest) and the noun forms "expectoration" and "expectorant," which denotes a medicine that helps clear phlegm.
How expectorated is actually used
Register is formal or clinical; in everyday speech people almost always say "spat" or "coughed up" instead. The plain sense of spitting carries a mildly unpleasant or vulgar connotation, while the medical sense is neutral and technical. The past tense can be pronounced either "/ɪkˈspɛktəreɪtɪd/" with four syllables or, less commonly, "/-reɪtd/" with three.
Easily confused with expectorated
"Excoriated" means to have had skin stripped off, or to have been severely criticized verbally, whereas "expectorated" means coughed or spat out from the throat or lungs.