Ventilation (physiology)

In respiratory physiology, ventilation is the movement of air between the environment and the lungs via inhalation and exhalation. Thus, for organisms with lungs, it is synonymous with breathing. Ventilation usually happens in a rhythmic pattern, and the frequency of that pattern is called the ventilation rate (or, by long-standing convention, the respiratory rate, although in precise usage ventilation is a hyponym, not a synonym, of respiration).