breathlessness

noun

"breathlessness" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“breathlessness” is uncommon English (frequency #79,337 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#79,337
frequency rank, English
4,121
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The state of being breathless or out of breath, especially merely temporarily from exertion.

Corpus desk

Index EN-breathlessness · breathlessness · English

breathlessness · rank #79,337 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #79,337
  • LEN-MEGA 14 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,121
  • PHOTO-FINISH Brinkman

Nearest frequency peer: Brinkman (+2 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “breathlessness”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “breathlessness” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for breathlessness
PropertyValue
Headwordbreathlessness
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters14
Frequency rank#79,337
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “breathlessness” in English

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).breathlessnessfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Brinkman” (#79,339), “Bratz” (#79,334), “Brahmaputra” (#79,333). Among 4,121 “B” headwords, “breathlessness” is #79,337. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

breathlessness is uncommon English at frequency #79,337 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for breathlessness, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: From breathless + -ness. The correct English form is breathlessness, spelled B-R-E-A-T-H-L-E-S-S-N-E-S-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    The state of being breathless or out of breath, especially merely temporarily from exertion.
  2. 2
    Difficult or labored breathing, as a symptom or sign of a medical condition.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how breathlessness appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Climbing eight flights of stairs while the elevator is out of service can easily produce some breathlessness in people whose physical fitness is otherwise not noticeably impaired.
  2. Dickinson's longer lines and use of ampersands ^([Bronski means dashes]) creates a breathlessness that evokes sexual excitement, an urgency that precludes, or at least, overshadows thought.

Etymology

From breathless + -ness.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "breathlessness"?
"breathlessness" is spelled B-R-E-A-T-H-L-E-S-S-N-E-S-S.
What does "breathlessness" mean?
As a noun, "breathlessness" means: The state of being breathless or out of breath, especially merely temporarily from exertion.
What is the origin of the word "breathlessness"?
From breathless + -ness. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "breathlessness", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 14 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list