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Glite Dictionary
breathiness

breathiness

7.0
A soft, airy sound in someone's voice made when air passes from the mouth
  • noun
  • /ˈbrɛθɪnəs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : susurro
  • Her singing had a gentle breathiness that made the performance feel intimate.
  • breathiness rating
  • degree of breathiness
  • voice quality, breathiness

Examples

  • "Loyal caller, long-time listener, Art," a female voice said, a voice velvet with seductive breathiness, a siren's voice, eerily familiar.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • He spoke with a breathiness that conveyed both emotion and vulnerability.

  • The sound technician adjusted the microphone to capture the breathiness of her voice more clearly.

Synonyms

softness
vsbreathiness
1 1.6

A quiet, gentle sound, like a whisper or soft music

is produced by audible exhalation and adds a thin whispery vocal quality
airiness
vsbreathiness
1 4.0

An open, light feeling in a room or food that makes it feel fresh

is produced by audible exhalation and gives a gentle thin vocal tone

Antonyms

clarity
30 2.7

How easy it is to see through something like clean water

How Voiced

voicing
3.9
vocality
  • Specialized
7.7
breathiness
  • Specialized
7.0
voicelessness
  • Specialized
7.9

Surface Forms

breathiness singular
breathinesses plural

Morphology

breathiness = breathy (transparent) = breath + y + ness

Formed by adding the productive noun-forming suffix '-ness' to the adjective 'breathy' ('breath' + '-y'), yielding 'the quality of being breathy'.

Etymology

Breathiness comes from breath, which means 'air you take into your lungs', and the ending -ness, meaning 'state or quality'. So, breathiness describes a voice or sound that has a soft, airy quality because you can hear the breath.