breath
/bɹɛθ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.52 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I could hear the breath of the runner behind me."
- "The child's breath came quickly and unevenly."
- "Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines."
- "I took a deep breath and started the test."
- "Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat."
- "She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths could create a suffocating ice mask."
Etymology
From Middle English breeth, breth, from Old English brǣþ (“odor, scent, stink, exhalation, vapor”), from Proto-West Germanic *brāþi (“vapour, waft, exhalation, breath”) (compare German Brodem (“haze, vapor; breath”), of a different but related formation).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰreh₁-, breeth, brǣþ, *brāþi
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /bɹɛθ/
- British English: /bɹɛθ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
breaths (plural)
breth (alternative, obsolete)