breathe
verb
Simple meaning
To move air in and out of your body.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
breethIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɹið
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Draw air into, and expel out of, the lungs
“I can breathe better when the air is clean.”
intransitive
To expel air from the lungs, exhale.
intransitive
To take in needed gases and expel waste gases in a similar way.
Expel (gases or odors)
Allow the passage of air through
“Our new synthetic fabric breathes and is perfect for summer wear.”
transitive
To inhale (a gas) to sustain life.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Draw air into, and expel out of, the lungs
Used this way, breathe is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“I can breathe better when the air is clean.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- respire , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Draw / expelverb
“I can breathe better when the air is clean.”
Allowverb
“Our new synthetic fabric breathes and is perfect for summer wear.”
More ways to use breathe
- “He breathed new life into the old house.”verb
- “I can breathe better when the air is clean.”verb
- “Our new synthetic fabric breathes and is perfect for summer wear.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The bodily process of inhalation and exhalation.
A short respite.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Not breathing or able to breathe except with difficulty.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Draw in (air).
A device that facilitates breathing in cases of respiratory failure.
A device that facilitates breathing in cases of respiratory failure.
A device that facilitates breathing in cases of respiratory failure.
The act of expelling air from the lungs.
A short respite.
Commonly Confused With
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.