MEANING
To breathe more rapidly or deeply than the body’s metabolic needs require.
Use it for
panic-associated breathing; physically escalating anxietyDescribe an escalating bodily response precisely and cautiously.
Words that belong together
- begin to hyperventilate
- hyperventilate during an episode
- stop hyperventilating
On the page
During the frightening episode, he began to hyperventilate.
She told the nurse that she had been hyperventilating in the lift.
The scene depicts the character hyperventilating rather than merely catching his breath.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- hyperventilate / hyperventilates
- Past tense
- hyperventilated
- Past participle
- hyperventilated
- Present participle
- hyperventilating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- hyperventilate / hyperventilates
- Present continuous
- am/is/are hyperventilating
- Present perfect
- have/has hyperventilated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been hyperventilating
- Past
- hyperventilated
- Past continuous
- was/were hyperventilating
- Past perfect
- had hyperventilated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been hyperventilating
- Future
- will hyperventilate / hyperventilates
- Future continuous
- will be hyperventilating
- Future perfect
- will have hyperventilated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been hyperventilating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: fear. Can accompany acute anxiety, but has other causes; not every gasp or fast breath is hyperventilation. Do not offer a diagnosis from appearance alone. Verb forms (base, third-person singular, past, past participle, -ing): hyperventilate, hyperventilates, hyperventilated, hyperventilated, hyperventilating. Derived family (not additional inflections or records): hyperventilation.
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