Breathiness
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The state or quality of being breathy. uncountable
"The smooth, even surfaces of Mr. Glass’s music expose his weaknesses as a pianist, but the faults added a kind of human breathiness to the piano’s embellished tread (reminiscent of Satie’s “Gymnopédies”) in the concluding piece, “The Orchard.” Ms. Sutter and her borrowed cello sang a little raucously over it, like Carly Simon at the end of the night."
- 2 The result or product of being breathy. uncountable
"Here standard acoustic instruments are played in ways that suggest electronic sound: violins whir and buzz, woodwinds produce a toneless breathiness and a gentle tapping evokes a heartbeat."
Example
More examples"The smooth, even surfaces of Mr. Glass’s music expose his weaknesses as a pianist, but the faults added a kind of human breathiness to the piano’s embellished tread (reminiscent of Satie’s “Gymnopédies”) in the concluding piece, “The Orchard.” Ms. Sutter and her borrowed cello sang a little raucously over it, like Carly Simon at the end of the night."
Etymology
From breathy + -ness.
More for "breathiness"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.