chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

1. 1.

   a nonreversible lung disease that is a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis; usually patients have been heavy cigarette smokers

   Broaderemphysemachronic bronchitis

Questions about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

What does chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mean?

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease means "a nonreversible lung disease that is a combination of emphysema and chronic bronchitis; usually patients have been heavy cigarette smokers".

Is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a common word?

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.