phlegm
Other forms: phlegms
Phlegm is a thick secretion of mucous. It's hard to sleep when you have a bad cold and your throat is full of phlegm.
Your body's respiratory system creates phlegm, pronounced "flem," which becomes thicker and more annoying when you're ill. The thick substance you cough up when you have a terrible cold is phlegm. We don't talk about phlegm all that often these days, but it was very important in medieval science — it was thought that too much phlegm led to apathy and laziness, and it was a sign that the body was out of balance.
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expectorated matter; saliva mixed with discharges from the respiratory passages; in ancient and medieval physiology it was believed to cause sluggishnesssynonyms: sputumtype of:mucous secretion, mucusprotective secretion of the mucus membranes; in the gut it lubricates the passage of food and protects the epithelial cells; in the nose and throat and lungs it can make it difficult for bacteria to penetrate the body through the epithelium
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apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactionssynonyms: emotionlessness, impassiveness, impassivity, indifference, stolidity, unemotionalitytype of:apathyan absence of emotion or enthusiasm
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inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energysynonyms: flatness, languor, lethargy, sluggishness
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Vocabulary lists containing phlegm
The scourge of spellers, silent letters are often a stumbling block when learning how to write in English. To the modern eye, it's unclear what these letters are doing in the words in question, and learners sometimes simply have to memorize them. But the silent letters are very often hidden remnants of how the words passed through different languages on their way to English. Here are 20 words that prove that English spelling is far from rational
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Vocabulary from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road."