What does breathiness mean?
Breathiness is the quality of sounding breathy — that is, of carrying an audible trace of exhaled air within the voice. When someone speaks or sings with breathiness, the vocal cords do not close fully, so the tone acquires a soft, airy, whisper-like texture layered over the pitched sound. The term appears most often in conversations about singing, acting, and voice coaching: some singers cultivate breathiness deliberately because it conveys intimacy and emotional vulnerability, while vocal teachers may treat excessive breathiness as a technical weakness to be corrected through better breath support. In linguistics and phonetics, breathiness also describes a measurable acoustic property, as in 'breathy voice', one of the recognized modes of vocal fold vibration. Whether praised as sultry or criticized as underpowered, breathiness remains one of the most recognizable textures a human voice can produce.
nounThe quality or state of being breathy; a soft, airy quality in a sound, especially a voice, produced when too much air passes through the vocal cords.
- An airy, audible-exhale quality in the voice, common in singing and speech.
- In phonetics, audible friction or airflow accompanying a consonant or vowel (as in breathy voice).
"Her singing voice was prized for its warmth and gentle breathiness."
"Listeners loved the breathiness she brought to the slow ballads."
"Phoneticians describe Hindi's aspirated stops as having noticeable breathiness."
Rarely used in the plural; breathiness normally functions as an uncountable mass noun referring to a quality of sound.
That whispery crack in a singer's voice isn't a flaw — it's breathiness, and producers often spend hours trying to add it on purpose.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of breathiness
Breathiness is formed transparently from the English adjective 'breathy' plus the noun-forming suffix '-ness'. 'Breathy' itself derives from the noun 'breath', which comes from Old English 'brǣþ', meaning odour, vapour, or exhalation, and is related to the verb 'breathe'. The '-ness' suffix goes back to Old English as well, making the entire word thoroughly Germanic in origin rather than Latinate. Its use expanded notably in modern times alongside interest in vocal performance and phonetics.
Related word forms
How breathiness is actually used
Most common in discussions of music, singing technique, voice training, and phonetics. It can carry positive connotations (intimacy, softness) or negative ones (weakness, lack of support) depending on context.
Easily confused with breathiness
Breath is the air itself that you inhale or exhale, while breathiness is the airy quality of a sound.