souffle

See also: soufflé and Soufflé

English

Etymology 1

Noun

souffle (plural souffles)

1. Alternative spelling of soufflé (“dish made with eggs”).

Verb

souffle (third-person singular simple present souffles, present participle souffleing, simple past and past participle souffled or souffleed)

1. Alternative spelling of soufflé.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French souffle.

Noun

souffle (plural souffles)

1. (medicine) A murmuring or blowing sound.

   the uterine souffle heard over the pregnant uterus

French

Etymology

From souffler, from Latin sufflāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sufl/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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Noun

souffle m (plural souffles)

1. blowing (act of expelling air from the mouth)
2. a breeze, a gust (movement of wind)
3. a breath, or the act of breathing
4. the inspiration or influence (for a work of art, idea, & so forth))
5. the powerful movement of air caused by an explosion
6. (cardiology, medicine) the sound made by any condition which produces noisy, or turbulent, flow of blood through the heart; a murmur

Derived terms

• à bout de souffle
• à couper le souffle
• effet de souffle
• reprendre son souffle
• retenir son souffle
• second souffle

Related terms

• souffler
• soufflerie

Descendants

• → English: souffle

Verb

souffle

1. inflection of souffler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “souffle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012