Meanings
- uncountableThe state or quality of being breathy.
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.
2008 March 2, Virginia Heffernan, “Speak, ‘Tootsie’”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 30 Jul 20201 more example
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.
2007 February 15, Anne Midgette, “A New Work for Cello, Played Upon a Veteran”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2021 - uncountableThe result or product of being breathy.
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.
2008 May 9, Allan Kozinn, “From Energetic Players, a Mix of Modernism”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022
Origin
Cite this entry
breathiness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breathiness
“breathiness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breathiness. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “breathiness,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breathiness.
Source: breathiness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.