Breathless

How to spell breathless

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce breathless

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does breathless mean?

1. adjectiveGasping for air, or struggling to breathe, usually after physical effort.
2. adjectiveSo excited, eager, or amazed that one seems to hold one's breath.

Breathless in a sentence

• She arrived at the top of the stairs breathless and red in the face.

• The audience waited in breathless anticipation for the final result.

• The long sprint to the platform left him breathless for several minutes.

• Fans followed the closing minutes of the match with breathless excitement.

Where does breathless come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun 'breath', which descends from the Old English 'bræth', a word that originally meant 'smell', 'scent', or 'exhalation' rather than respiration itself; over time the sense narrowed to the air drawn in and out of the lungs. To this was added the productive Old English suffix '-leas', the ancestor of modern '-less', meaning simply 'without' or 'free from', the same element that gives us 'careless' and 'fearless'. 'Breathless' is recorded from the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with the literal meaning of being without breath, whether through exertion, illness, or even death. From this physical sense it developed the lively figurative meaning of being so excited, eager, or astonished that one seems to forget to breathe. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the 'ea' produces a short 'eh' sound and the 'th' is easy to overlook, while the ending is the common '-less', never '-lass' or '-les'.

How the word is built

• breath (from Old English bræth: air drawn into the lungs)
• -less (without)