breathiness
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.13 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "If you dared, and if you had had any luck doing Princess Leia (Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope), you might even hazard Jessica Lange ’s tearful vanilla-rose breathiness: I really love you, Dorothy, but I can’t love you."
- "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."
Etymology
Etymology tree English breathy Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English breathiness From breathy + -ness.