rale

See also: ralé, râle, and râlé

English

Etymology

From French râle (“groan”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɑːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹɑl/, /ɹæl/, /ɹeɪl/

• Audio (Northern California); “rales”:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːl, -æl, -eɪl

Noun

rale (plural rales)

1. (medicine, now chiefly in the plural) An abnormal clicking, rattling or crackling sound, made by one or both lungs and heard with a stethoscope, caused by the popping open of airways collapsed by fluid or exudate, or sometimes by pulmonary edema.
   • 1840, CM Billard, A Treatise on the Diseases of Infants, page 416:

     Michael Colot, aged fifteen days, of a strong constitution, not having been sick from the time of birth, was, on the 22nd of November, taken with a violent cough, accompanied with a rale which could be heard without recourse to auscultation.

   • 1861, Austin Flint, American Medical Times, 7 Dec 1961:

     If you were to tell a patient that he had a ‘rhonchus’ in his chest, he would imagine that it was something formidable, while, if you said that he had a ‘râle’ he would not be alarmed.

   • 1894, Arthur Conan Doyle, Round Red Lamp:

     But after all the educated classes have a right to expect that their medical man will know the difference between a mitral murmur and a bronchitic rale.

Alternative forms

• râle

Synonyms

• crackles

Hyponyms

• crepitation

Translations

abnormal sound made by lungs and heard with a stethoscope

• Arabic: كراكر
• Catalan: crepitant m, ranera f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 囉音／啰音 (luōyīn)

• Finnish: rahina
• French: crépitants (fr) m pl, râle (fr) m
• German: Rasselgeräusch n
• Italian: rantolo (it) m
• Japanese: 囉音 (らおん, raon)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: کراکل (kerâkel)
• Polish: rzężenia f
• Portuguese: rala (pt) f
• Russian: хрип (ru) m (xrip)
• Spanish: crepitante m
• Swedish: rassel (sv)
• Thai: เสียงแซมหายใจ (sǐiang sɛɛm hǎai jai)
• Turkish: ral

See also

• bilateral, basal, basilar, bibasilar

Anagrams

• Arel, Earl, Elar, Lare, Lear, Rael, Raël, Real, earl, lare, lear, real

Portuguese

Verb

rale

1. inflection of ralar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative