Respiratory Symptoms

noun a sudden, noisy expulsion of air from the lungs that clears the air passages; the sound made when coughing

• He tried to stifle a cough during the important presentation.
• She couldn't stop coughing during the movie.
• I think I caught a cough from my coworker.
• The city was coughing up pollution from all the factories.

noun a whistling sound made while breathing, typically due to obstruction of the air passages

verb present participle of the verb 'wheeze', which means to breathe with a whistling or rattling sound in the chest, as a result of obstruction in the air passages

• The patient was wheezing heavily due to an asthma attack.
• I could hear him wheezing from across the room.
• She was wheezing like a broken engine.
• The old car was wheezing its way up the steep hill.

noun breath

• The patient presented with shortness of breath upon arrival at the emergency room.
• I couldn't catch my breath after running up the stairs.
• I was huffing and puffing from the shortness of breath.
• The intensity of the situation left me with a metaphorical shortness of breath.

adjective relating to or characterized by sudden and uncontrollable bursts of activity or emotion

• The patient experienced paroxysmal episodes of chest pain.
• She has these paroxysmal fits of laughter that are contagious.
• My dog goes into a paroxysmal frenzy whenever he sees a squirrel.
• The political situation reached a paroxysmal point, with tensions running high.